Is Unconditional Hospitality a Regulative Idea of Reason?

This chapter explores the relationship between unconditional hospitality and Kantian regulative ideas of reason and highlights Derrida’s reservations about identifying unconditional hospitality with them. To illustrate the similarities and differences between the two, the chapter offers a detailed explanation of Kantian regulative ideas of reason. Despite their similarities, however, the law of unconditional hospitality is not merely a regulative idea, for its purpose is not limited to improving existing laws of hospitality or to being merely a guideline or roadmap to guide hospitality in practice. The law of unconditional hospitality responds to the ethical requirement to be just and responsible to the coming other. As such, it cannot be postponed indefinitely, but requires the provision of hospitality to the other, here and now.