The Gift of Property: Having the Good / betraying genitivity, economy and ecology, an ethic of the earth

Stephen David Ross

Feb. 2001 · State University of New York Press

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This is the fifth volume in an ongoing project reexamining the philosophic tradition from the standpoint of the good. The ongoing project seeks to understand humanity's relation to nature in a profoundly ethical way. This volume develops an understanding in ecological terms. It does so by examining the notion of giving in relation to having, calling into question the ways in which being human, and being itself, have been understood in terms of what one must have and possess in order to live well—goods, qualities, a body, a dwelling, freedom, land, children, family, things, knowledge, power, authenticity—all forms of genitivity. Having is explored in terms of ecstasy, squander, generosity, and sustenance, then as betrayal and forgiveness. Betrayal is understood as the expressiveness of things, always promised to circulation in abundance beyond containment, use or profit: the circulation of goods and commodities together with the circulation of images, meanings, language, and writing.

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Stephen David Ross is Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at State University of New York at Binghamton. He is the author of many books including The Gift of Beauty: The Good as Art; The Gift of Truth: Gathering the Good; The Gift of Touch: Embodying the Good; The Gift of Kinds: The Good in Abundance/ an ethic of the earth; and editor of Art and Its Significance: An Anthology of Aesthetic Theory, all published by SUNY Press.