London Lectures

Mutual Guardianship and Hospitality: A Moral Obligation

Tamara Albertini (University of Hawaiʻi) presents her talk Mutual Guardianship and Hospitality: A Moral Obligation. Part of the London Lecture series Expanding Horizons.

The London Lectures 21-22: Expanding Horizons

Tamara Albertini (University of Hawaiʻi)

Mutual Guardianship and Hospitality: A Moral Obligation While Heidegger and Derrida both contributed groundbreaking reflections on hospitality (and “hostipitality”), they failed to recognize that the host-guest relationship can only succeed if it is correlated with the notion of mutual guardianship. The lecture will describe historic guardian civilizations and then turn to Ricoeur’s linguistic hospitality as a possible blueprint for future cultural hospitality. However, the latter scenario will have no need for a third party, i.e., a “translator” who mediates between host and guest. The challenge consists of designing a host-guest relationship in which both parties become each other’s translators – and guardians.