so what does Pascal, Newton, Descartes, Plato, Marx, Aristotle,
Augustine, Einstein and the bible have in common?
ummmm, they do have something in common…
they, each of them have created a map… a map of reality…
some maps are scientific in nature and some are theological and
some are philosophical in nature… each map has a different starting point…
Einstein and Newton from a scientific starting point, Descartes and Plato
from a philosophical starting point and Pascal and Augustine from a theological
starting point… thus each one is different…
let us go for our maps again… I take a map and I use that map to
find my way… the starting point makes a huge difference…
a map that starts in Detroit is different from a map that starts from New York
which is different from a map that starts from L.A…and thus each
will end in a different place…and each map is a map of reality…
but because they start from different places will be different maps…
what if the map starts from a imaginary point… say, El Dorado, the myth
of the golden city that the Spanish followed for many, many miles…
El Dorado doesn’t exist and the Spanish were lead many miles away
from pretty much everything… in following this myth…
so if we start from the wrong place… we have a good chance of ending up
in the wrong place… that is the trouble with theological maps…
they start from the wrong premise and take us far away from reality…
their map insist that there is a god and heaven and hell and angels and
the devil… that is a map of their reality… but what if god doesn’t exists
and that means there is no heaven and no hell and no angels and no devil…
their map is completely wrong and following a map that is completely wrong
will lead one on the wrong path…
scientist have a different map…and their map of reality is closer to reality
then the theologian…scientist don’t need faith for their map to be right,
and by science, the map is self correcting… leading scientist toward a
destination… but that is the problem with science… it doesn’t have a
destination, just a method to keep one on track but on track toward what?
Philosophers have their map… a map of reality… and Descartes and Spinoza
and Plato and Kant and Hegel all have a different map of reality…
so who do you follow? the person or the map which seems to be closes to
reality for you…so for me, the person whose map seems to be closes to reality
for me is Hume and Nietzsche… but for you, it might be Kant and Descartes…
and for someone else it might be Plato and Husserl…you never know…
but that is the point… we each follow a philosopher because their map
seems to be the closes to reality that we can see…
as mentioned, some maps are tainted because they are corrupted by
myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions… these corruptions
make the map unreliable and not very trustworthy …would you follow
a map that seems to be unreliable? I wouldn’t… and you shouldn’t either…
this is the point of having myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
that they corrupt our personal map… and that corruption will lead us the wrong
way… but how do we find out what is the right destination?
ah, that is the trick isn’t it, finding out what is the right destination
and thus finding out what is the right map for us to use…
is my destination to be an righteous man? then a theological map is the
right one… is my destination to be a accurate man? then science seems
to have the right map…is my destination to be a wise man?
then philosophy or a philosophic map, would seem to be the right one…
the destination it seems help us understand which map to use…
are we creating an equal and just world? then Marx has the right map…
are we creating a democratic world? then the enlightenment ideals seem
to be the right map… and that is a very interesting thing about maps…
it can lead us individually or it can lead us collectively…
and the map can tell us our place in the world… both individually and
collectively…some maps tell us that we exist individually and collectively
and we can be both, individual and part of something… those maps are
very popular maps… because we can learn who we are and what is our
place in the universe, both individually and collectively… theological
maps are popular for this and the communism map is also popular for this…
so whose map do you follow and why?
Kropotkin