Jean-Luc Marion - Sketch of a Phenomenological Concept of Sacrifice (1-7)

source: Eidos84   2010年9月8日
In this lecture, Jean-Luc Marion advances a phenomenological notion of sacrifice that is distinct from the notion of sacrifice typically discussed in Sociology or even Religious Studies. He argues that sacrifice restores the gift from the side of the givee, much as he has argued previously that forgiveness restores the gift from the side of the giver. He develops both notions within the framework of a phenomenology of givenness, advancing the thesis that sacrifice requires neither destruction, nor restitution, nor even exchange, and still less contract. Sacrifice surpasses all this because sacrifice does not arise as an economic notion (one that would make an economy of the gift), but rather from the gift itself. The function of sacrifice is only to permit acknowledgment of the giver and thereby the entire process of givenness, by reducing the given. Jean-Luc Marion is Professor in the Divinity School, the Department of Philosophy and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. He is author of many books, including God Without Being, Cartesian Questions, and The Erotic Phenomenon.