Aristotle and Husserl on the World as Cosmic Oikos

This paper addresses the question of the relationship between human beings and the world as a common ground of experience or as a cosmic oikos, as present in Aristotle and Husserl. Both Aristotle and Husserl sustain an absolute or cosmological sense of place – topos koinos – and a relative one – topos idios –: Regarding the latter, while Aristotle attributes to natural places a potency that involves the potentiality of bodies to reach their ultimate form, such that natural places contribute to the definition of ‘what’ each body is, that is, to its essence, for Husserl place is interpreted existentially as the one I recognize as my own, as the only place that supports me and is inhabited by me. Concerning the former, both authors start from the proper place in order to determine the common place through an iterable process of being-in. For both, place and earth are the realms we inhabit and thus the primordial home that carries and protects beings living in community. Earth and sky encompass all things and beings, while the horizon and simple places are both boundaries that can be transgressed, allowing thus for movement and change. Hence, earth and sky can be understood as primal home-places, that is, as our cosmic oikos.