from Latin: necesse +tas

1. necessity, need, unavoidableness, compulsion, exigency

2. (figurative) fate, destiny

in Greek ἀνάγκη

1. force

2. constraint

3. necessity

personification of inevitability, compulsion and necessity

The polis is the space of the many, the space that exists in between individuals or groups of individuals when they coexist.

Political space is made into the institution of politics precisely because the existence of the space in between presupposes potential conflict among the parts that form it. This possibility is the very foundation of techne politike -the art of politics- the decision making that must turn conflict into coexistence.

Men in the plural, that is, men in so far as they live and move and act in this world, can experience meaningfulness only because they can talk with and make sense to each other and to themselves.

Public squares are used in our times not so much for great popular festivals or for the daily needs of our life. The sole reason for their existence is to provide more air and light, and to break the monotony of oceans of houses. It was quite different in ancient times. Public squares, or plazas, were then of prime necessity, for they were theatres for the principal scenes of public life, which today take place in enclosed halls. Under the open sky, on the agora, the council of the ancient Greeks gathered.

Living in a courtyard house provides a physical–cultural context in which neighbors become aware of the “details” of one another’s lives. Meanwhile, these revealed facts encourage neighbors to “participate” and “help” one another. They have a semi-private space, which allows them to “gather” and help without entering one another’s private realms. Neighbors clean the courtyard to prepare it for the arrival of a suitor. In an impressive scene, neighbors form a human chain to hide one of the residents who is wanted by the police. In another sequence, all the tenants attack and hit the landlord. All these “collaborative activities” happen in the central courtyard; its semi-private quality increases the sense of community and proximity.