The Ethics of Hospitality: Tracing the Confucian Other

In this paper, I will explore the meaning of the Confucian "other" and its ethical implications in the light of the ethics of hospitality advocated by L & eacute;vinas and other poststructuralist philosophers in contemporary discourse. The questions I would like to raise in the paper include: Who is the "other" for Confucians? Can Confucian ren (sic) ("virtue of humanness-qua-relatedness") reconcile the particular and the universal, or an ethics of graded love and an ethics of inclusive care? Can the Confucian concept of tianxia (sic) ("all under the heaven") resolve a universal notion of humanity with a particularistic notion of cultural and political community? Is there such a thing as "Confucian ecumenism"? I am fully aware that whenever we bring a pre-modern intellectual tradition of the East like Confucianism into the conversation of contemporary Western ethical or political issues, we need to remind ourselves that the contemporary framework defines, to some extent, the parameter for the application of concepts and norms. But at the same time, the interpretation of an ancient tradition like Confucianism should not preclude an attempt to explore its thought and its possible connection to contemporary analogous issues within its own cultural context and form. The comparison in the paper intends to seek constructive ethical engagement in both traditions.