Hospitality and the Enlightenment (Encountering China)

A Conversation with Immanuel Kant and Jacques Derrida

Anni Greve (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

246 Seiten

2025
Routledge (Verlag)
978-1-041-07214-0 (ISBN)

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This book draws out the relationship between the shift in hospitality to the foreigner and the European Enlightenment during the so-called long eighteenth century – a relationship pertinent to today’s landscape.

With the change of power in Washington, the word ‘Enlightenment’ has taken on a dramatic topicality that no one could have wished for. The wisdom of the eighteenth century could not be more relevant. This book demonstrates a relationship between hospitality towards the foreigner and the European Enlightenment – a relationship that is relevant to today’s landscape.

Greve begins by unfolding the philosophy of hospitality by reading both Immanuel Kant and Jacques Derrida. Next, she tunes in on China in global history to discuss: the kind of hospitality offered to all foreigners with the Canton system of 1757; the hospitality offered to Sephardic diaspora groups involved in credit relations; and Macau, a free port city, a rehearsal space for friendship and conversation.

Then, the book turns to Copenhagen during the Age of the Enlightenment to look more closely at a burgeoning layer of ‘bourgeoisie’ involved in financial speculation abroad. What significance did the circulation of merchant letters from the Pearl River Delta have for conversations in Copenhagen? It also points to the significance of ‘free’ port cities for the spirit of the Enlightenment.

Finally, the book returns to contemporary China. What has the opening of China in the ‘new era’ after Mao Zedong implied? And how do we understand a desire for a ‘New Enlightenment’, first in the late 1980s in Beijing and then in the 2020s in the ‘free’ port city of Hong Kong?

The volume is a valuable resource for students and scholars interested in the Enlightenment, diaspora studies, Sephardic Jews, urban studies, philosophy, sociology, and China in global history.

Anni Greve is Associate Professor of Sociology, emerita, at Roskilde University, with specialist interests in cosmopolitanism, urbanism, and the social sciences. She is the author of Sanctuaries of the City – Lessons from Tokyo (Ashgate 2011, Routledge 2016).

List of Maps

INTRODUCTION

PART I HOSPITALITY AND THE EUROPEAN ENLIGHTENMENT

1.1 Hospitality and the Enlightenment: Immanuel Kant

1.2 Khôra

1.3 Given time

1.4 Of Hospitality

PART II PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY

2.1 Global history, hospitality and the Enlightenment

2.2 Global history and hospitality to a stateless diaspora group: welcome, finance, antisemitism

2.3 A khôra moment

PART III HOSPITALITY AND COPENHAGEN IN THE AGE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT

3.1 Copenhagen and the foreigner in pure finance

3.2 Negotiation: one must negotiate the non-negotiable: The ‘free’ port city

3.3 Mediation and iteration: The merchant’s letter

3.4. Spaces of hospitality in Copenhagen in the age of the Enlightenment

PART IV ENCOUNTERING CHINA TODAY

4.1. Encountering China

AFTERWORD

Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	07.08.2025
Reihe/Serie	Routledge Research in Early Modern History
Zusatzinfo	1 Halftones, black and white; 1 Illustrations, black and white
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	630 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
ISBN-10	1-041-07214-7 / 1041072147
ISBN-13	978-1-041-07214-0 / 9781041072140
Zustand	Neuware