ABSTRACT
Thinking about the city and well-being is an enormous task. In our anthropocentric era we interpret the phenomena of cities and well-being in terms of the value they have for humans which we instrumentally or functionally calculate in terms of the services that natural systems or social institutions provide us. Consequently, it is usual to equate well-being with health or economic-material prosperity and to see cities as the locations in which we can optimize the net utility. Heidegger, however, provides an alternative, convincingly explaining how we can’t adequately understand (or act upon) any of the constituent dimensions, much less well-being itself, if we start from the taken-for-granted view. Rather, we need to think well-being in terms of World, which he understands as the dynamic gathering together and continuing to come forth of what he calls the fourfold of heavens and earth, immortals and mortals. Well-being would be the Well-being of World – its fruitful unfolding (rather than dissipation or decay).
