RICHARD KEARNEY AND KASCHA SEMONOVITCH
What we desire, more than a season or weather, is the comfort
Of being strangers, at least to ourselves.
—Mark Strand
This volume plays host to a number of texts that serve as “phenomenologies of the stranger.” Who is the stranger? When and how does the stranger appear? And why does the question of the stranger matter so much, to philosophers and non-philosophers alike?
From the perspective of these authors situated in North America and Europe, responding to strangers matters a great deal. We belong to nations and cultures embroiled in debates about borders, immigration, and cultural assimilation. Our world calls on us to improve our capacity to respond responsibly: to learn to offer hospitality or to assess hostility.
So what exactly do we mean by “Stranger” ? The Stranger, as we understand it, is not identical with the “Other” or with the “Foreigner.” We shall use capitals to signal the three categories. These distinctions are facilitated somewhat in English by the fact that we have separate words for “stranger” and “foreigner,” whereas in many other languages there is but one: l’étranger, xenos, hostis, der Fremde, and so on. The three terms Other, Foreigner, and Stranger are similar at times, but they are not the same. They command precise and prudent readings. But such readings are performed at dawn or dusk, in half-light. Our inquiries are in demitones. Careful descriptions are called for. Among the three, the Stranger will be the focus of our hermeneutic study.