Placing the Good Life: Towards a Phenomenology of Place

Abstract

This paper stresses the place of a phenomenology of place in philosophical discussions on the constituents of what various philosophers designate as the good life. A phenomenological approach to place aids in addressing the taken-for-grantedness of our lifeworld and its implications—including but not limited to—questions on embodiment, freedom, and intersubjectivity. Phenomenology reveals the layers of meaning behind the varying dimensions of human experience that constitute their lived emplacement. In turn, a phenomenology of place examines the onset of a conscious and subjective interpretation of places, and things and concepts surrounding them. Making sense of the importance of place and locality is integral to the meaning-making endeavor that humans bear on their shoulders, even when the inevitable transformation of the world at particular moments in time leads to placelessness. Since phenomenology unfolds the richness of our everyday life, this philosophical reflection contends that placing ourselves is crucial to construing a life well-lived that makes human flourishing possible.