Beyond guilt and responsibility – The social phenomenology of late modern debt experience

Abstract

The article describes the late modern experience of debt by combining phenomenological and social theoretical analyses. From Nietzsche's perspective, the lived experience of indebtedness is explained by guilt. From the perspectives of Levinas and Derrida, the debt experience is explained by the impossible moralities of ‘absolute responsibility’ and ‘unconditional hospitality.’ These moral phenomenologies are connected to anthropologies of gift and money economy. Reciprocal gifts maintained a perpetual sense of indebtedness, which served as the basis for a trust-based, integrative debt experience (Mauss). The rise of the money economy undermined these relationships and replaced them with quantifiable, ephemeral transactions, implying an exclusively guilt-based debt experience (Graeber). Furthermore, the money economy not only replaced the gift-chains but also compromised the trust-based and responsibility-based debt experiences. This hybrid experience is explored in the article, along with its existential−moral consequences and the possibility of salvaging it.