Identity in individuals and communities: a perspective on the ethics of hospitality of innerarity and immunology

Abstract

The ethics of hospitality according to Daniel Innerarity proposes that the construction of identity passes through recognition of the stranger as an integral part of the self. This article shows the relationship between the unknown and one’s identity is analogous to discoveries of immunology as explained by Chilean biologist and philosopher Francisco Varela. He explains that the immunological system is a cognitive process in which the corporal identity is constructed through the distinction between the self and the unknown. Within this distinction the system first recognizes and then appropriates the unknown. The similarities between Innerarity and Valera allow us to see for example that homophobia and chauvinism are analogous to an erroneous understanding of the preservation of the self.