Abstract

Proceeding from the current discourse on guilt, blame, and debts this essay discusses three theoretical positions which trace the origin of guilt from debts or derive debts from guilt respectively. In a second step the author relates the corresponding proposals of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Levinas to specifically modern positions maintaining that we owe nothing to others or rather that we are indebted to others for almost everything. The guiding thread of this essay is the question how the notions to owe, moral guilt and economic debts are to be correlated conceptually.