The Homelessness of Being: Heidegger and the Meaning of Existence

The Homelessness of Being invites readers to consider what it means to be human. This dialogue between sociology and the early and middle phases of Heidegger’s writings argues that to be human is to be homeless. This homelessness is not one of materiality, of being houseless, but one that is ontological: the homelessness that constitutes the essence of humanity, where one is disconnected from the essence of one’s self or being. Prashan Ranasinghe theorizes this homelessness as an indeterminate nothingness, where the notion of being is unsettled because it is an amalgam of something and nothing. More broadly, the book adds to existing debates about whether--especially after the global pandemic--the social sciences have failed to explore everyday affects such as anxiety and boredom as revelatory of the essential homelessness of being human. It will interest philosophers, sociologists, and scholars engaging with Heidegger’s ideas.

Prashan Ranasinghe is Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.