In 1995-96, Derrida's seminar at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales was titled "Hostility / Hospitality" (Hostilite / Hospitalite). In the book at hand, Jacques Derrida accepts the "invitation" of Anne Dufourmantelle and offers for publication two sessions from that seminar. Therefore, the Greek reader can read this text as if they were present at the moment of its delivery-reading in the amphitheater of the aforementioned School.

Here, Derrida makes the foundational distinction between the unconditional Law of hospitality – which demands that I provide shelter to the stranger without conditions, limitations, or reciprocities – and the laws of hospitality that impose conditions (moral, legal, political) on the right to hospitality. An example of hospitality is provided by Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus at Colonus, where the blind king of Thebes seeks refuge in Athens asking for hospitality for himself and also for his impending burial in foreign soil.

(. . .) [Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]