Home is where unique moments unfold. It’s a special place filled with comfort, creativity, and sometimes conflict. Here, we can be our true selves, shedding the masks we wear outside. With so much emotion attached to our living spaces, it’s surprising that philosophers don’t explore this topic more deeply.
Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia notes that while cities get plenty of philosophical attention, homes are often overlooked. The ancient Greeks understood the importance of the home. They coined the term “Oikonomia,” combining “Oikos,” meaning household, and “nemein,” meaning management. Aristotle viewed economics as the art of household management, extending those principles to cities and beyond.
Personally, I’ve found myself in 15 different homes throughout my life, which is half as many as Coccia had before writing Philosophy of the Home: Domestic Space and Happiness. His work is a thought-provoking exploration of how our homes influence our happiness.
Architect Le Corbusier famously said, “A house is a machine for living in.” It offers essential comforts: warmth, hygiene, and beauty. For Coccia, home represents a blend of mental and material aspects that help us navigate the world better. When our homes don’t meet our expectations, it’s often because they fail to deliver the happiness they promised when we first stepped inside.
Coccia highlights that spaces like kitchens and bathrooms are filled with modern gadgets, making them the most technologically advanced parts of our homes. His reflections on home life dive deep into the emotions these spaces evoke. For instance, he suggests that cooking transforms our relationship with the world around us. That connection can be an exciting one to explore.
Bill Bryson takes a different approach in his book At Home, using anecdotes like the frugality of the Duke of Marlborough to show how stories about homes can lead us to bigger ideas. His humorous observations make the topic even more engaging.
Poet Paul Valery once said that poems are never truly finished, only abandoned. The same goes for homes. There’s always something to add or improve, never truly completed but always evolving.
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home,Emanuele Coccia ,Oikonomia, Le Corbusier
