Investigating the tradition that springs from Aristotle’s formulation of the human being as a polis dwelling creature, a zoon politikon, this workshop will unfold how being-in-place and being-in-common are integral and constitutive aspects of human being. While this line of thought has been pursued within a rich philosophical tradition – which includes among others the Stoics, Kant, Heidegger and Arendt – it is yet to be re-appropriated fully.

In an attempt to rethink the basic historical and conceptual frame within which contemporary life and existence is understood, we invite contributions that fall into three main areas:

1. Historical/Textual: A study of texts from the history of philosophy can demonstrate the existence of a tradition that is concerned with defining human being in relation to that being's existence in the world. It is this worldly existence that allows the inquiry into the human to be reconceptualized as an ethical-ontological inquiry.
2. Conceptual/Analytical: From a conceptual rather than historical perspective, the workshop will show how consideration of ‘world’ is directly tied to the articulation of notions of commonality and of place. From a conceptual rather than historical perspective, the workshop will show how consideration of ‘world’ is directly tied to the articulation of notions of commonality and of place.
3. Inter-disciplinary/Engaged: On the basis of the historical and philosophical investigations it is possible to facilitate a genuinely interdisciplinary mode of thinking. Specifically, the interarticulations of the question of the human with the question of place and commonality open a range of anthropological issues surrounding identity, self and community.