Living in: A Sketch for an Oikology

Following the reflections of James Mensch on the reciprocal relationship of an organism to its environment, the central concern of this article is to investigate whether the determination of subjectivity as environmental is sufficient or whether the environmental reference is rather linked to a being-in of the subject—a being-in that is in its anchoring in human corporeity prior to any meaning-related affectivity and action. In this context, three theses can be formulated: first, the basic sense of the house consists in a being-in and describes the basic situation of living in an already interpreted social world; second, the concept of being-in is, however, double-sensed and designates not only the being-in-the-world, but also the being-in-my-corporality; and third, the house becomes an excellent place that brings both together and, at the same time, keeps them apart.