Environmental Philosophy

Volume 8, Issue 1, Spring 2011

The Place of Home

In this paper, I address the normative power of place, specifically the place of home, on our embodied constitution. I explore the Husserlian notion of homeworld and its counterpoint, alienworld, to address the reasons why place would have a normative power and to what extent that normativity can be drawn into question through encounters with the alienworld. I address this with a focus upon the interconnection between place and body. Finally, I briefly think through the ramifications of this priority of the homeworld for “displaced” peoples questioning whether alien place can ever take on the normative and identity power of home place.