The Gift and the Common Good: An Intercultural Perspective

What are we living for? What are we working toward? What holds us together? In the Western tradition answers to these questions have always reposed upon the concept of the common good. But is this concept fit for the globalised world of tomorrow? An interculturally qualified social philosophy requires in this respect new philosophical impulses. The concept of the gift as the elusive principle of meaning of all social exchange is discussed in this volume by thinkers from China, Europe and the Americas in order to asses its suitability for purpose. Two perspectives emerge here, ones which not only and simply order themselves along the borders between different cultural contexts, but indeed also across them: the gift as the rendered service or indeed the dedication of the individual to the whole and the gift as the departure point, owed to the whole, of the individual quest for meaning. Also philosophically reflected upon in this volume is an economy of the gift, one which today has become institutionalized and which from the perspective of economic philosophy can serve as a guiding principle for global interaction.