On the essence of home. An attempt to analyze selected philosophical findings

The article takes up considerations in the field of philosophical anthropology and is an attempt to answer the question what the human home is (not in the sense of house). While this question is of great importance, it has seldom been placed at the centre of philosophical deliberations. In order to answer this question, the analyses made by such authors as U. Schrade, B. Wolniewicz, J. Zubelewicz, E. Lévinas, J. Tischner and M. Buber are referred to. The home turns out to be a permanent form of human coexistence and a spiritual community, in whose creation the fundamental role belongs to the woman. The place that is home is for its inhabitants a tamed space and a friendly niche from which they derive their vital forces and a sense of identity. The article also analyses the categories of habitation and homelessness, which are the modes of human existence in its entanglement in time and history. In the article, I am attempting to show that not all epochs of history with their mental assumptions were conducive to human habitation in the world. However, the epochs in which people did not feel at home in the world seemed to produce deep reflection on the specificity of human existence as well as subtle anthropological and egological concepts. Also today, there are a number of people who choose the condition of homelessness as well as those who experiment with alternatives to the socially dominant types of habitation.