Simple, Binding Gifts, by Michael Pakaluk

By Michael Pakaluk, The Catholic Thing, August 2, 2023

Michael Pakaluk, an Aristotle scholar and Ordinarius of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas, is a professor in the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. He lives in Hyattsville, MD with his wife Catherine, also a professor at the Busch School, and their eight children. His acclaimed book on the Gospel of Mark is The Memoirs of St Peter. …

I find a common confusion in the use of the phrase “free gift.”  Someone gives a free gift, properly speaking, if he was not bound to give it.  No legal constraint or moral obligation or physical coercion dictated the gift.  The giver gave it freely, perhaps because it struck him as good, or he felt pity. But people get confused and think that a “free gift” means that the recipient is not bound through receiving it.  All gifts bind, however. There is no such thing as a gift with “no strings attached.”

The bindingness of gifts is attested to in so-called “gift economies,” such as the mafia.  You simply do not want a “free” gift from a mafioso, as you will eventually be asked to repay, on the mafioso’s terms. …

Continue reading >>>>