Reflection on the reflective ethics of charity

Sagy Watemberg Izraeli

doi:10.30664/ar.91839

Abstract

This article is a reflection on the NSU Winter Symposium of March 2020, entitled ‘Feminism and Hospitality: Religious and Critical Perspectives in dialogue with a Secular Age’. It contends with moral judgments which regard charity as an act of alienation from the other and as a reiteration of hierarchies of power. Instead of this conceptualisation, I propose an ethics of charity in terms of an ethics of the reflective agency of otherness. This ethics of charity entails acts of aid for an other which stem from the recognition of the agency pertaining to both parties. It will be shown how this recognition of agency, and the reciprocity it entails, is critical for the success of the charitable endeavour in two ways: first, for the manifestation of the act itself of aiding and providing for another; second, for the assertion of the other’s own agency through the reciprocal act of charity.

Highlights

This article is a reflection on the NSU Winter Symposium of March 2020, entitled ‘Feminism and Hospitality: Religious and Critical Perspectives in dialogue with a Secular Age’.1 It contends with moral judgments which regard charity as an act of alienation from the other and as a reiteration of hierarchies of power
Theses offered, and contem plations shared. These formulate into con ceptualisations of hospitality and otherness, refugees and volunteers, biblical texts and church asylum, ethics and praxis, solidar ity and charity
What are these moral judgments I am hearing, that ‘charity is bad’? That charity is an act which perpetu ates privilege rather than remedies inequal ities? That reciprocity requires not receiv ing thanks? That recognising the other entails rebuffing the recognition of oneself and the aid and hospitality one offers the other? How is it that in this symposium of feminist philosophers, theologians, law yers, and social scientists, a symposium originating from and occurring in the wel fare states of the Nordic region – that here the recurring ethical sentiment is that ‘charity is bad’?. Perplexed by this moral judgment, I delve into days of dialogue with myself and with my colleagues about these notions of charity versus solidarity, about the ethics of hospitality, gratitude, and recognition

Summary

Introduction

This article is a reflection on the NSU Winter Symposium of March 2020, entitled ‘Feminism and Hospitality: Religious and Critical Perspectives in dialogue with a Secular Age’.1 It contends with moral judgments which regard charity as an act of alienation from the other and as a reiteration of hierarchies of power. Perplexed by this moral judgment, I delve into days of dialogue with myself and with my colleagues about these notions of charity versus solidarity, about the ethics of hospitality, gratitude, and recognition. The notion raised by my friends is that charity is an act of giving aid to a person in need enabled by one’s position of privilege in the hierarchy of economic and social situations.

Results

Conclusion