Gifts are a highlight of the holidays for many. We take pleasure in the ritual of giving and receiving presents. But what might seem like a pure expression of generosity often fails to break away from the marketplace logic of exchange and debt. Seneca, Marcel Mauss, Jean-Paul Sartre, Theodor Adorno, Jacques Derrida and Peter Singer on the perils of gift-giving.

SUGGESTED READING Marx, Nietzsche and philosophy at Christmas By IAI Editorial

Seneca

Finding the right kind of gift has never been straightforward.

There's a reason you can't just get everyone the same gift, and Seneca explains it best.

“Whoever thinks that giving presents is an easy matter is wrong. This is a subject of extreme difficulty, if the gifts are made carefully and not just cast about randomly and impulsively. To one person I do a favor; to another I return one; to one I help; another I show pity.

I give to someone else because they shouldn’t be overcome by poverty and obsessed by it; to some I will give nothing even though they need it because they would still be in need whatever I give; to others I offer aid and some people I force to take it. I cannot be negligent in this effort and I am never more certain to write down names than when I am making a gift.”

Seneca, De Vita Beata

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Marcel Mauss

Is gift-giving ever done our of pure generosity?