• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.52
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• pp.1-29
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• 2018

The notion of 'gift' is one of the effective and fruitful codes for understanding Western civilization. In this study, we will shed light on several meanings, especially by comparing among the three French philosophers that expressed interest in this notion: they are Mauss, Derrida and $Ric{\oe}ur$. Called "father of French ethnography", Mauss claims, in his famous article "Essay on the Gift", that the gift is paradoxically a kind of economic exchange dominated by three obligations: to give, receive, and return. But he strives to establish a moral theory based on the obligation to give. Under the influence of Mauss, Derrida deconstructs the theory of Mauss by devoting attention to 'time', one of the determining elements in studies on the gift. Derrida observes that the gift is established just at the extremely short moment of emergence of the act of giving and that this act is transformed into an economic exchange with passing of time. From it, the impossibility of the gift is derived despite its concrete and real emergence and existence. Under the influence of Mauss, $Ric{\oe}ur$, for his part, is interested in the notion of giving as part of the dialectic between 'love' and 'justice'. According to him, whereas justice is dominated by the economy of gift, namely the logic of equivalence, love, by the logic of 'superabundance'. He focuses on establishing 'Supra-ethics' by considering the fact that the gift is at the core of his religious and philosophical vision. Finally, let us point out that in $Ric{\oe}ur$, this notion of gift ('don') is closely linked to forgiveness ('pardon'), that holds in it the secret of understanding regarding the 'fallible' and 'capable' man.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.52
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• pp.53-78
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• 2018

In the moral culture of the West, love and justice are two commands with roots in ancient times. One is the heritage of Hebraism, and the other belongs to the tradition of Hebraism and Hellenism. The two concepts are the most important virtues required for preserving stability in society. These two commands are compatible, in an exclusive relationship to each other. To ultimately seek their reconciliation, the precise concept analysis and understanding of each of them should be premised on, due to the multi-layered meaning of implications of the two concepts. To this end, we first have started with a lexical meaning and have done a conceptual analysis of what these two concepts are expressing. We have looked at Paul $Ric{\oe}ur$ in his interpretation of the discourse of love and justice. Finally, we looked at how these two concepts are narrated in literature. Through the literary works of Stendal, Albert Camus, and Dostoevsky, we have seen examples of literary configurations that have been embodied in life. In this way, through conceptual analysis, discourse analysis, and narrative analysis of the two concepts, the following conclusions were drawn. Love and justice were not a matter of choice. We could see coldness and unrealism of a society lacking love or with a problem of unclean love, through Stendhal's and Albert Camus' novels and their actual debate. In addition, in unclean paternalism, risk of the power of love blocking certain a certain touch of justice was also confirmed. So, it was necessary for a healthy future society to explore the possibility of the coexistence of love and justice. We confirmed the possibility of compatibility in a 'considerate balance' wherein the 'moral judgment in situation' is required, as Paul $Ric{\oe}ur$ expressed. This ideal situation may be realized when forms of love involving solidarity, mutual care, and compassion with pain like Dostoevsky are combined with the principle of distributional justice. When Albert Camus pursued justice and eventually faced reality and mentioned the need for mercy, he could have made a moral judgment based on this situation. In the end, love protects justice, and justice contributes to the realization of love. Justice reduces super-ethical love to moral categories, and love plays a role in enabling justice to exert its full force.