ABSTRACT
This is the most important and by far longest chapter of the book, which argues that in the modern world trickster logic extends not only to particular areas of social life, but becomes the animating force of social life itself. In order to present the spread of such trickster logic, the chapter starts by presenting the foundational and original social logic, which is based on gift-giving, and is captured by the trio of Greek words arkhé charis logos: arkhé as origin and power; charis as benevolent kind disposition, and logos standing for the animating logic; a perspective that combines the thinking of Heraclitus and Plato with the Gospel according to John, closely relying on the classic ideas of Marcel Mauss and Georg Simmel, just as works by Bonnie MacLachlan, Michel Henry, and Agnes Horvath. Trickster alogos ‘logic’ emerges by forcing or luring the dynamics of social life outside of charis, either by inducing violence, or by convincing people to accept the logic of substitutability, instead of relying on the sense of judgement and the capacity of recognition. The chapter ends by presenting the increasing domination of trickster logic inside education and in the media, helped by the systematic undermining of the family.
