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| author | Somyong Kim |
| title | Hospitable Entanglements: Immigration, Apophasis and the Attitude toward "the Other" |
| abstract | We are living in the age of immigration. The reason that immigrants move to other place
beyond the border is understandable. They want to find better life. Counter to their
expectation, they are confronted by severe problems. Especially, in the wake of
international terrorism, immigrants are dealt with as dangerous elements. And because of
an exclusionary attitude toward immigrants, these serious problems cannot be solved, but
rather are aggravated. This thesis considers Jurgen Habermas' notion of tolerance and
Jacques Derrida's notion of hospitality as example of examples of ethical attitudes toward
"the others." Derrida insists on unconditional hospitality, asserting that tolerance is still
host-centric. However, since Derrida's hospitality deconstructs the boundary between
guests and hosts, it seems near impossible to realize. Derrida also mentions the
impossibility of unconditional hospitality. But it is not a fixed impossibility, but rather an
impossible possibility. This thesis then considers the metaphor of quantum entanglement
as shedding light on the impossible possibility of unconditional hospitality. Quantum
physics mentions that quantum manifests both as a wave and as a particle. Process
philosophy, influenced by quantum mechanics, insists on the duality - not the dualism - of matter. This thesis then draws upon a current approach to apophatic theology to
accentuate not only the unknowing God, but also the coincidence of opposites.
Eventually, the impossible possibility of deconstruction of the boundary between guest
and host is found in unconditional hospitality. This thesis examines an ethically attractive
attitude toward "the other" including immigrants, foreign workers and strangers, via
Derrida's notion of hospitality and its impossible possibility based on entanglements
drawn from the vocabularies of quantum physics, process philosophy, and apophatic
theology. |
| school | The Theological School, Drew University |
| degree | M.A. (2015) |
| advisors | Catherine Keller
Hyo-Dong Lee |
| full text | SKim.pdf |
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