The Hyper-Ethics of Hospitality

This chapter is concerned with the ‘unconditional ethics of hospitality,’ which refers to what hospitality requires of us to do in relation to the coming other, namely, its unconditional provision for all, both humans and non-humans, living and dead. For Derrida, hospitality belongs to the order of an ‘ethicity and an ethical justice’ (H II 29/HS II 58) that cannot be reduced to law and politics. However, the application of such an ethics without its contamination by politics or law could have disastrous consequences. In this sense, the unconditional ethics of hospitality could lead to morally reprehensible acts. For Derrida, then, it is not just a matter of formulating and prescribing an ethics of hospitality but also of demonstrating the aporias to which such an ethics is subject. However, while he relates the provision of hospitality to justice, Derrida does not explicitly speak of a responsibility of hospitality to the coming other. Thus, part of the chapter consists in relating hospitality to responsibility through his fragmentary references to this concept but also to Levinas’ work on responsibility.