We are caught in a spatio-temporal environment exactly as in a trap

I wanted to show that we are caught in a spatio-temporal environment exactly as in a trap. This means that our actions are not only limited: they also limit us. The environment is perhaps precisely this turning of our fundamental limitation back on ourselves, a turning back that results in the enclosure of our lives within limits that are no longer physical- natural, but spiritual. I wanted it to be understood somehow that philosophy is not something that deals with the problem of the infinite in the paralogisms of Kant’s pure reason. Oh no! Its place is right here in the immediate. In other words Mr Liiceanu’s ‘limit’ is not a matter of peratology. It needs to be thought hic et nunc. It is for this reason that you cannot live without doing philosophy. In a way, we can live without thinking about the infinite, but we cannot live without thinking about our trap. For the simple reason that we live in it. Philosophy is thinking about the trap in which we live. I agree, of course, that there are many ways out of this trap; the principal escape routes are religion, philosophy, science, and art. In the case of philosophy, I escape from the trap exactly to the extent that I want to be clear in my mind about it. You can, of course, live in this trap content that ‘they’ give you warmth and food, I mean without feeling any need for philosophy. But for me that is not a life that I can choose. No! I want to be clear about my world. And this is called doing philosophy.

from the book The World We Live In by Alexandru Dragomir