... can be used as a way of ‘figuring out what we are from what we are no longer

[pars]

Hi:
What is the exact meaning of figuring out in the following passage? It is from the book The Shah’s Imperial Celebrations of 1971, p. 28, by Robert Steele.

"Pierre Nora has written that history can be used as a way of ‘figuring out what we are from what we are no longer’."

Thanks very much.

 

[emsr2d2]

Is it just this sentence that's causing you trouble or don't you know the general meaning of "figure out"? Did you know that we have a great list of phrasal verbs right here on this forum? HERE is the link to the relevant page.

 

[jutfrank]

Here it's used to mean 'distinguishing'. It follows the same pattern as:

distinguish something from something else

 

[White Hat]

Isn't the meaning here 'determine/understand (based on)' rather than 'distinguish (from)'?

 

[jutfrank]

I take it to mean that history is a way of understanding our present selves in light of our past selves.

Can we perhaps see the whole paragraph?

 

[emsr2d2]

I agree with jutfrank's interpretation. I read it as "we can work out who we are now by looking back to see who we used to be/what we used to be like".