GIFT AND DEBT

Abstract

This article, which takes its starting-point from a book by M. Zarader (La dette impensée, Seuil, Paris, 1990) dealing with the relationship between Heidegger and Jewish thought, is an attempt to reflect on "double bind logic" (Derrida, Levinas, Lyotard) which governs every donation, inheritance, and debt-repayment. It is only possible to receive and welcome that which one is not expecting to receive, that which is not, as it were, "received". Thus, conceiving of the gift as an unforeseeable event, how can one duly recognize and return what has come from another?