Abstract: Aims to explain as carefully as possible Aristotle's account of place given in the Physics, Book IV, Chs. 1-5. Also aims to rehabilitate it as a piece of philosophy, after many centuries of its being dismissed as inadequate. Discusses the importance of the concept of place to natural philosophy, including the role of so-called ‘natural’ places in the explanation of the natural motion of the elements. Offers a full reconstruction and interpretation of Zeno's paradox of place, which Aristotle took to be a crucial challenge to the coherence of the notion of place, as well as an assessment of Aristotle's treatment of Plato's account of space in the Timaeus. Outlines the different ways in which things are somewhere, implicit in Aristotle's solution to Zeno's paradox of place. This corresponds to the various meanings of the word ‘in’. The concept of being somewhere is of the first importance in understanding our practice of asking and answering where-questions. The most fundamental way of being somewhere is to have a place––most bodies have a place, according to Aristotle. For a body to be somewhere, it must have a proper place, i.e. a place that only it occupies. Aristotle's definition of proper place (‘the first immobile limit of that which surrounds’) has been found wanting by many philosophers: the author offers an interpretation of the definition which overcomes the classic objections, including ancient worries about whether the universe is somewhere.

Keywords: being in something, limit, place, space, natural place, proper place, somewhere, universe, where-questions, Zeno's paradox of place