The Ambiguity Of Creditor-Debtor Relationship

The foundations of these two relationships are distinctively different. If the gift economy is one based on hostility and the desire to win, where a deliberate inequality is established, the creditor-debtor relationship is a partnership based on trust and reciprocity, where equality is valued. It is not in its nature that the creditor-debtor contract serves as an instrument for the manipulation of power. The hierarchy of creditor-debtor relationship is not formed at the moment when the promise is made. The creditor is not necessarily better than the debtor. The one who gives his vow is not necessarily less of a respectable man. The immense power the creditor have over the debtor only comes available when he is unable to repay. Before the payment …show more content…
The hierarchy and the inequality of creditor-debtor is only realized through giving up part of his wealth to the debtor.
Nietzsche’s discourse on “Schuld” is the key to the entire Second Essay. The ambiguity of Schuld illustrates the complexity in the psychology of the debtor. The German word Schuld means at once “debt” and “guilt”, and it is associated with the English world “should”. As mentioned earlier, both the debtor and the receiver of the gift experience the feeling of “indebtedness”. Whereas shame arises out of the receiver’s sense of indebtedness, guilt (Schuld) or bad conscience (schlechtes Gewissen) emerges out of the debtor’s. The two words are sometimes used interchangeably in Nietzsche’s Second Essay and both convey a sense of moral responsibility. The debtor is aware that he causes his …show more content…
Unlike the giver of the gift who actively seek his receiver, someone he can exert his power on, the creditor does not usually voluntarily offer part of his property to the debtor. That is to say the creditor is not the initiator of the creditor-debtor relationship; the debtor is. Even in the event that the creditor volunteers his help, the debtor is still left with the choice not to enter an unfavorable contract. In his classic work The Gift, Marcel Mauss argued that one has the obligation to receive the gift in order to show due respect to the giver (Mauss, 1997). To put it differently, the receiver of the gift is forced into an unwanted rivalry against the giver under the coercion of social norms. He is a victim of his obligation and the malicious intent of his giver. On the other hand, the debtor has no such obligation to take the offer of the creditor; and therefore, he is guilty of his own affliction. For example, in William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, Bassanio, a young Venetian prodigal of noble rank, wishes to woo the beautiful and wealthy heiress Portia of Belmont. He turns to