interesting, thanks Dante, Michel ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 9:56 PM Subject: Ethics and Hospitality Right ? - wikipedia excerpt To: Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> *" For Derrida, the foundation of ethics is hospitality, the readiness and the inclination to welcome the Other into one's home. "* * * *" Levinas's and Derrida's theories of ethics and hospitality hold out the possibility of an acceptance of the Other as different but of equal standing .* *Isolation is not a feasible alternative in the world, therefore, it is important to consider how best to approach these interactions*, and to determine what is at stake for ourselves and the others: what conditions of hospitality to impose, and whether or not we have responded to the call of the Other. " //// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitanism#Modern_cosmopolitan_thinkers In his 1795 essay *Perpetual Peace*, Immanuel Kant<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant> stages a *ius cosmopoliticum* (cosmopolitan law/right) as a guiding principle to protect people from war, and morally grounds this *cosmopolitan right by the principle of universal hospitality*. Kant there claimed that the expansion of hospitality with regard to "use of the right to the earth's surface which belongs to the human race in common" (see common heritage of humanity<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_heritage_of_humanity>) would "finally bring the human race ever closer to a cosmopolitan constitution".[4] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitanism#cite_note-3> The philosophical concepts of Emmanuel Levinas<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Levinas>, on ethics, and Jacques Derrida<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Derrida>, on hospitality, provide a theoretical framework for the relationships between people in their everyday lives and apart from any form of written laws or codes. For Levinas, the foundation of ethics consists in the obligation to respond to the Other. In Being for the Other, he writes that there is no "universal moral law," only the sense of responsibility (goodness, mercy, charity) that the Other, in a state of vulnerability, calls forth. The proximity of the Other is an important part of Levinas's concept: the face of the Other is what compels the response. *For Derrida, the foundation of ethics is hospitality, the readiness and the inclination to welcome the Other into one's home.* Ethics, he claims, is hospitality. Pure, unconditional hospitality is a desire that underscores the conditional hospitality necessary in our relationships with others.* Levinas's and Derrida's theories of ethics and hospitality hold out the possibility of an acceptance of the Other as different but of equal standing.** Isolation is not a feasible alternative in the world, therefore, it is important to consider how best to approach these interactions, and to determine what is at stake for ourselves and the others: what conditions of hospitality to impose, and whether or not we have responded to the call of the Other.*Further, both theories reveal the importance of considering how best to interact with the Other and others, and what is at stake. /// also see : Alexis de Tocqueville Ana Arendt Kant Derrida Levinas -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens