Finding our own location in the world

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

I have been reading a fair amount of science books
and biographies lately… every other book has been a science
book of some nature… especially books about scientist like
Newton, Einstein, Kepler… either about physics and/or astronomy…
but one of the things I have noticed is that by each discovery,
we slowly began to see, find our place in the universe…
today, we have maps of the Milky Way galaxy, and we can,
on those maps place us exactly, the sol system, exactly where
we are in relation to the Galaxy…I can use this map to place exactly
where I am in relationship to the galaxy… and by reducing it down,
I can place where I am in the solar system, planet Earth, and I can further
place myself down by various maps of Planet Earth… I live in California,
and by another map, I can further scope out where in California I live,
and with Google Maps, I can further scope what city I live in, and then
what neighborhood I live in and then I can see a picture of my own
condo complex… we can by the use of technology, place ourselves
exactly in the universe where we are…my exact physical location can
mapped to the foot, with my cell phone… and this fulfills some
human need we have to find out, exactly where we physically are…
But we are not just physical beings, we are being with an inner life…
I am a 67 year old man… and what map will that be on?
Therein lies the problem… we don’t know where we are in
a historical or psychological or mental place… I try to overcome
that we my own personal description, I am a liberal…
and with that, we can begin to map out where we ourselves stand…
I am an atheist… again, another description to list where exactly do I
stand in the overall scheme of things… I am a male, another description
of where I stand in the scheme of things… with each description, I
can and you can, narrow down my own place in the world… we discover
our own location by means of such personal descriptions… and
with each description, of my own beliefs, we can further narrow down
my own location, in terms of what other people do or don’t believe in…

Now part of the confusion of youth, is that we don’t have a sense
of who we are and we where we fit into the state/society..
by developing these clues, straight or gay or atheist or what other
description we might use to describe our place in the universe,
we slowly discover where we fit into the world… just as scientist
like Kepler and Galileo who found out our own place, planet Earth,
within the universe…

One of the interesting things about this internal map,
atheist or gay or liberal, is that this internal map, can and quite
often changes…perhaps events or my own internal changes can
lead me to become a believer… doubtful, but it is possible…
and then we have another internal search for our place in
the world given this new information… people who come into
crisis, often have lost their place in the universe… where do I stand
in regard to other people… or said another way, where do I find those
people who feel or act or believe as I do? much of life is this searching
for identity and finding those who also have that same identity…

as I have noted before, I am now legally deaf… and some have asked
me, do I know or will I learn sign language… the problem lies with
I don’t know anybody else who is deaf or needs to learn sign language…
I am alone in this matter… and as such, there is really no reason for
me to learn sign language because I don’t know anybody to sign with…
Just as I don’t know anybody who reads or cares about philosophy…
hence my remaining on this website… I am an audience of one…
but I know because of this website and other examples of evidence,
that I am not alone in my search for the understanding of philosophy
and where I fit into philosophy… exactly as I have lost touch with
the working world due to the fact that I have retired… my new ‘‘crowd’’
is the retirement crowd… of which I don’t know anybody… one
doesn’t realize just exactly how many retire people in the world until
one goes out on a tuesday at 11:00 am and seeing all those retired people…
and to an extent, I am reassured by the shear number of retired people…
for I am not alone in my own retirement… and that gives me comfort…
and that is the value of knowing our own place in the universe, it gives
us comfort…

but the reality is that we are lost in the world until we find our place,
our own crowd as it were… I can find meaning by communicating
with others who also share my own philosophical values…
but therein lies the problem, we don’t have maps like the one
that show us exactly where we are in the galaxy or in the
solar system… we are mapless as far as our own place
in our own world exists… and therein lies much of the world’s
discomfort and what ails it… our modern malaise comes from
the lack of a map describing exactly where we fit in the universe…

in our modern world, Freud for example, is a means of discovering
where exactly we fit…as is Marx and Adam Smith and Heidegger
and Kant and Sartre… much of the social disciplines such as
sociology and history, is an attempt to locate us individually
and collectively within the map of our created world…

so, the question becomes, how do you locate yourself and
where is that location exactly? Where do you fit into the world?

Kropotkin

2

let us continue… the need for religion and god stems
from our need for location… having a religion or god,
creates a location for us… I have heard a religious
person say, I exist within the loving embrace of god…
and that is their location… where they stand in the various
relationships of the universe…but I personally, have no need
to have that location… I can stand on my own without any type
of relationship with religion or god… once many years ago, I
was camping with some friends in Yosemite, and I had a map,
but I misread the map and I got us lost, very, very lost…
so, we trekked toward what we thought might be the trail,
it wasn’t, so we spent the night camp in some unknown and
random location… some climbers told us where to go and we followed
that path back to the trail…so, even with a map, we can get lost…
religions and god are really nothing more than maps of our location…
But what if, we accept Nietzsche description that god is dead
and we have killed him… that map, that map we have no longer
fits our own location… and therein lies, part of the modern malaise,
we no longer have a map that fits for our location…
if there is, as I have long claimed, there is no god, how do we know
our location today? I believe that we not only don’t need an already
written out map, but we can survive even better with a map that
we ourselves create, draw… the last 200 years, since the
French Revolution, we have gone without a proper map of
our own location and relevance… Hence the outcry and fear
of the conservatives… I don’t believe that we are lost, as
conservatives fear, but I do believe that we do actually know
where we are and we don’t need a map to know this…
in fact, I hold that this religious belief is preventing us from
actually finding out where exactly we are… it is a false location…
that is my take on religion and belief in god…to be blunt,
we are exactly where we were roughly 2000 years ago…
the old values, the one that gave people comfort, was no longer
effective, people were losing their faith in the old values…
and the new values, Cristian values were slowly replacing those
old values… and today, Christian values no longer comfort us,
and so, we must replace those faded values with new values,
with a new location…
we reside today in the time period between the old values and
the new values… and what should the new values be?
that is the question we face today…

what is your answer?

Kropotkin

3

The word you are trying to say is not location. It’s ‘place’ in a metaphorical sense. More like “how I feel myself compared to the rest”

4

As a matter of fact ‘we’ exist everywhere and nowhere.

5

Would like to see your critique of Jewish conservatives besides Christian ones.

Of course we both know that’s not going to happen. Liberals never say anything bad about Orthodox Jewish conservatives.

They’ll criticize Christians and Muslims constantly, never Jews.

Right, Peter? @Peter_Kropotkin

:clown_face:

6

Also:

“Why can’t everyone be an enlightened atheist like myself? The world would be so much better if everyone was atheists. My name is Peter Kropotkin.”

:clown_face:

7

I usually locate myself by looking all around me. One can easily identify that space in the moment and be there in the moment and live there in the moment. Just take the time to listen to what that moment has to say to you and be aware of your outer and inner surroundings.

Does our own location have to be a particular physical and emotional place set in stone? Doesn’t it change? Perhaps your location needs to be for now learning sign language. Language and communication are most important. It can open up for you a whole new area of belonging or being.

I do not think that we find our place (that place which will tell us and show us who we really are eventually) without taking chances, taking risks or learning new things which perhaps we are meant to do.

The world is your oyster. You can fit in wherever you choose to fit in. It all begins with a journey though, a long journey. Meditate on that question. Shhhh!

8

Peter

who feeor said another way, where do I find those
peoplel or act or believe as I do? much of life is this searching
for identity and finding those who also have that same identity…

I do not think that we come to find out who we are by searching for people who we think are like us. That might give us a false sense of belonging but it will not get us to that place where we are meant to go.

You have to throw away that antiquated map and go in search of your own path.

9

I’ve been using Google maps and have had no problems so far.

1 Like