The Philosopher's Gift

Abstract

■ This article considers Derrida's critique of Mauss's The Gift and the philosopher's argument that the gift is impossible. In the spirit of the gift, the article engages Derrida in a potlatch-like manner and subjects his critique to the same sort of critical interrogation to which he subjects the gift. The key question raised is why Derrida should want to give this gift of knowledge, namely, that there is no gift. The article argues that despite appearances, and the contradictions in his argument aside, Derrida's gift is the same as the anthropologist's gift. It is the gift of human unity and hence purity and innocence, which is (a) given only insofar as there are no giving agencies — `man', for instance, or the West.