The concept of place in geography has been varied. The aim of this paper is to find a direction for the conceptualization of place without the premise of modern spatial concepts by investigating concepts related to place in ancient Greek philosophy. First, I examine Plato’s concept of ‘chora’ in Timaeus and Aristotle’s concept of ‘topos’ in Physics. Second, I try to place these concepts within the history of geography by tracing the genealogy of chorography and topography from ancient times. Finally, I consider the arguments made by contemporary philosophers about these concepts.

Plato’s ‘chora’ has been explained as a third category between being and becoming, namely the alternative. Aristotle’s ‘topos’ can be understood as being a substitute for the dualism of form and matter, or that which wraps and that which is wrapped. These concepts resemble the concept of place in humanistic geography, which depended on phenomenology to overcome the dualism of subject and object. Although humanistic geography has emphasized the meanings and senses of place, conventional geography has incorporated in its concepts the materiality and substantiality of place. Consequently, geographers have argued about the ambivalence surrounding the concept of place. In contrast, this paper adopts a way of thinking that grasps matter and the spatial as being inseparable, from the contemporary interpretation of the concepts ‘chora’ and ‘topos.’ Place itself has no nature, but rather a power to bring something from an absent state into a present state. Derrida’s examination of ‘chora’ has suggested that such a concept of place has so far not been fully grasped, but been understood as being irreducible to a definite thing. In a case study of a certain city, for instance, this concept may help to realize the intangible component of that city.

We can gain a deeply sexual understanding of place by referring to the sexual expressions used by Plato in his metaphor of chora and by exploring Irigaray’s discussion about topos. However, it would be phallocentric to pursue this topic without also considering what feminist critics have said about gender and sexuality in relation to the creativity of place. Irigaray regarded the wrapped and that which wraps as the (parts of) bodies of man and woman, and argued that the interval between them is the threshold of sexual difference. The Aristotelian definition of topos has led commentators’ attention to the relationship between the inside and outside. It can be said that Aristotle’s definition is similar to Massey’s theory of place.

The history of chorography and topography are the key to understanding what different lines of thought have been formed out of the concepts of chora and topos. Although chorography and chorology have been neglected as idiographic studies prior to the quantitative revolution in geography, we might still learn many things from these histories.

The concept of place has been increasingly taking on significant meaning in modern times. There is still much room to examine aspects of this concept that have yet to be explored. Although we cannot do without the concept of place, we must also refrain from burdening it with superfluous value.