The seminar series 'Work in Progress in the Social Studies continues on Wednesday between 6 and 7 p.m. at the Mediterranean Institute Room 124, following on the three special seminars devoted to "Max Weber's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism".

The topic will be "George Bataille's Interpretation of Potlach and the Gift". The speaker will be François Zammit, post-graduate student in philosophy. He will argue that French philosopher Georges Bataille analysed the ritual of the Potlach beyond the domain of reciprocity and power game. He viewed it as a waste of material resources. But this very waste is the basis of his theory of general economy.

Economy is based on whims and desires. For Bataille, irrationality is the same source moving both poetry and economy. Action and labour are not necessarily a means to an end. They may have no use-value whatever. Mr Zammit will be drawing on Bataille's Tears of Eros, Accursed Share, Inner Experience, and Theory of Religion.