Abstracts

Simon Gissinger (Bio)

The Gift of Hospitality and the Event of Aesth-ethics

In the closing words of his recent book, D. Pimentel calls for “aesth-ethics” to “replace ethics as prima philosophia” (262). Aesth-ethics is thus a new way of thinking not only about art, but also about ethics and thinking itself. I would like to discuss this “new discourse” in light of the question of hospitality which is its key concept. First, I will draw on Pimentel’s remarks about Levinas in order to shed light on the relationship between hospitality and the gift. The main part of my talk will then be dedicated to Derrida’s understanding of the latter. Through a reading of the last sections of Glas (1974) – which deal with the origin of religion as an aesthetic relationship with God, and thus with the birth of the work of art –, I will show that a deconstructive thinking of the gift can help approach the necessity of aesth-ethics, in particular as the latter takes place within a writing which is not only about artworks, but also thinks through its own “performative quality” (3) and turns art theory into an artistic event. In conclusion however, I will show that Derrida’s thinking of the gift suggests at the same time that this event character of writing threatens the possibility of any “prima philosophia”, including aesth-ethics.