The violence of the gift

In his recent book, Dror Pimentel calls for “aesth-ethics” to “replace ethics as prima philosophia”. Aesth-ethics is thus a new way of thinking not only about art or ethics but also about thinking itself. In this paper, I discuss this “new discourse” in light of Derrida’s deconstruction. First, I draw on Pimentel’s remarks about Levinas in order to recall the relationship between hospitality, which is a key concept of aesth-ethics, and the gift. I then focus on Derrida’s understanding of the gift. Through a reading of the analysis of the latter in Glas, I suggest that a deconstructive case can be made for aesth-ethics. However, I also argue that the undecidability of Derrida’s thinking of the gift sits uneasily with aesth-ethics insofar as it is understood as first philosophy. I argue that aesth-ethics tends to repress the violence of the event to which it means to be hospitable.