ABSTRACT
According to an ancient strain in Western philosophy, a knowledge of essences figures as the precondition for making; thus the house builder must know what a house is before going about the business of building one. Such knowledge is both theoretical and practical, yet it is not necessarily reflective, at least not in the way philosophy presumes to be reflective. The question in my chapter tide is intended reflectively. It does not sound like one, yet it may well be the philosophical question of our time—a time when traditional philosophy, or so we are told, has come to an end, leaving us confused about who or where we are, insofar as we are human. Heidegger believed that the confusion stems from modern homelessness; indeed, that modernity and homelessness are at some level necessary correlates. Even if that is true (dato non concesso), is the correlation itself amenable to domestication? Is something like the housing of modern homelessness conceivable? What would such housing look like? On what foundations would it rest? What would it shelter? These are questions that we cannot begin to answer until we first clarify, in a reflective way, the-essence of a house.
