Rational Philosophy

Who am I? What am I? What is that?

In New York, many people who work in corporate environments also pursue artistic endeavors. If you ask someone what she does, she may say she’s a financial analyst, but that she acts in her spare time. I have a friend who introduces himself as an artist, even though that is not what he does to earn a living. In fact, he does not try to make a living by selling his artwork because he believes that would alter his artistic vision. For him, honesty in being is paramount; declaration of identity becomes a matter of trying to live honestly.

Florida has begun to respond to an alarming increase in unprovoked attacks on the homeless, many committed by young people. Warren Messner, who is serving a 22 year sentence for his part in the death of homeless man Michael Roberts, admits his culpability, but says, “I’m not a killer. I know that. A lot of people, they see this story and call us killers. I’m not a killer.”

Interviewed for the story, Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, indicates that the rising trend in violence against homeless people reflects a lack of respect for the homeless that “has reached such extreme proportions that homeless people aren’t viewed as people.”

This would explain why Messner still doesn’t see himself as a killer. He regrets his crime, but can’t quite grasp the idea that he killed another person.

John Locke recognized that the concept of personal identity rests on our consciousness. But the label we ascribe to our identity has less to do with a consistent sence of self, and more to do with our relation of self to others. It is language-based. We use words to express the person we want to believe ourselves to be in the eyes of others, or who we want others to believe us to be.

My friend, for example, prefers to call himself an artist because this word corresponds most closely to the truth he wants to convey to others. He feels himself an artist. Therefore that is the word he uses. Messner does not want to call himself a killer because this term does not tally with his sense of himself; in Messner’s mind he is not a killer because the term “homeless person” corresponds to an inferior being, something less than a person.

Homeless advocates point out that as society curtails the rights and freedoms of homeless people it devalues society’s sense of the homeless. The term ‘homeless’ becomes freighted with new and dangerous meaning; it begins to mean ‘less than our equal.’ The same things happens with the label assigned to any group being persecuted or discriminated against.

For some reason I have connected this matter of identity with a story from the world of astronomy.

Astronomers and lay-astronomers have used a new and mind-bogglingly subtle technique (micro-lensing) to detect and analyze planetary systems thousands of light years from earth. Einstein predicted that massive objects curve space-time. His theory shows that the path of light waves will be bent as they pass by a massive object. This means that as two stars far out in space become briefly aligned, the light from the more distant star will be focused by the nearer star creating a sudden increase in intensity that astronomers now watch out for. By measuring fluctuations in the brightened light, astronomers can detect the existence of any large planets around the nearer star, since they will cause some additional brightness.

A report of one such event indicates the existence of a solar system possibly somewhat similar to our own about 5,000 light years from earth. Alan Boss, a theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said, “The fact that these are hard to detect by microlensing means there must be a good number of them — solar system analogues are not rare.”

The quest to detect life or the possibility of life on other planets seems to be inspired by two motivations: To satisfy our curiosity about whether other life exists, and to confirm our own identity as being alone or not alone in the universe.

Which does find us back, I think, at language and identity. Depending upon how we define the terms, we are either alone or not alone, either in our head, in our home, in our city, on our planet or in the universe. If we cannot treat our fellow human beings with respect as equals, we may as well see ourselves as a collection of individuals, discrete and disconnected. But, if we can understand that all life and all existence emerged and congealed out of the primordial energy soup, we become aware of the oneness of everything, and the danger of labels.

For a rational, science-based explanation of life’s meaning and purpose, please refer to my book: LIFE! Why We Exist… And What We Must Do To Survive.