Albert Einstein once wrote: People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. Time, in other words, he said, is an illusion. Likewise, Aristotle claimed that time is not a kind of change, but that it is something dependent on change. He defines it as a 'number of change' with respect to the before and after. Time is a self-evident unit of measurement created by man to help him structure his life. Have you ever noticed that when you sleep, you don't have a concept of time? It's only when you wake up that you are able to sense the passage of time. Regarding these concepts, I decided to research presentism and eternalism in philosophy.
Presentism is a view about what exists in time; it's not a thesis about what exists outside of time, nor is it a thesis about what exists at other possible worlds. Hence, presentism concerns what exists within time since it implies that nothing exists. A presentist may believe that time is merely the result of memory and imagination- that there is no past nor future, just the eternal now. When thinking of a location within space that is thousands of miles away, we are confident that it is real- even if it is currently inaccessible. With time, we think of the past as something that has already occurred and is over with, and the future has yet to begin. We are living in the present, and therefore only the present is real because it is the only thing accessible to us. By the time we reach the idea of a future, we will still ultimately be living in the present, and our now-present self will soon become what is known as the past and will then be inaccessible to us. We cannot exist within the future or the past, we can only exist in the present. The idea is not to focus on why the past and future is not real, but to focus on why they are treated differently than space, when the two seemingly have the same concept.
Eternalism, on the other hand, says that objects from both the past and the future exist. According to eternalism, non-present objects like Socrates exist now, even though they are not currently present. We may not be able to see them at the moment, on this view, and they may not be in the same space-time vicinity that we find ourselves in right now, but they should nevertheless be on the list of all existing things. All moments within the universe are equally real, and the only distinction with the present is that we are experiencing it right now. The laws of physics, which ultimately tell us what happens next, appear to support eternalism. The laws of physics start from a single moment in one instance of time and use patterns and science to tell us what happens at each subsequent moment. By using this, we are able to use what is currently taking place to determine what will be taking place next to this current happening, such as a cause and effect. Aristotle discovered laws of physics in reference to the future. He believed that in order to calculate what could happen next, we need to understand all the possibilities for what the future could potentially hold. We have a hard time understanding the world suggested by science because we are basing our understandings on ordinary experiences. Eternalism suggests that the past and future is real, we just have different access to them. Our reflections of memories made in the past still affect us in the present. All moments in time appear to be real, we just have a better understanding of some moments more than others.
There is a notion that time and space are completely different. We move through space as we like, housing the choice to go to another location within space if we so choose. We cannot, however, choose to go to another location within time. We are inevitably traveling through time at the rate of one second per second. Time is relentless, but how we move through space is up to us. When making dinner plans with a friend, you give the time and place in which you wish to meet. Because we are on the surface of the Earth, we are able to give coordinates of where we wish to meet via an address, however, if we were to attempt to give directions within space, we would need three coordinates instead of a mere street name and number. We would need to give the length, height, and breadth, which all make up the three dimensions of space. Time is essentially of another dimension. Newton and Einstein both touched on the combination of the two dimensions to create what is known as spacetime, a four-dimensional manifold. They both realized that in order to find someone, you would need the three numbers for space and the one number for time; however, their ideas of time and space were not the same. Newton believed that time and space were vastly different and there was no reason to merge the two together. Einstein believed that what counts as space and time could vary among each person, which is why we need to think of them as spacetime.
In 1583, Galileo was attending church and noticed a chandelier hanging from the ceiling that would rock back and forth. He also noticed that no matter the amplitude of the rocking, the chandelier would always move at the same time. He conducted a short experiment by timing the rocking with his heartbeat. He found that his radial pulse matched that of the time it took the chandelier to rock back and forth from the ceiling. No matter what the amplitude was, the frequency stayed the same each time, thus creating a measurement for time. With this being said, there was a period in which time could not be calculated as precisely as it is today. There were regular occurrences, but they would play out at unpredictable times. It is hard to imagine everyday life without a grasp of the true measurement of time, as there would be no reliable clocks. The idea of time would still be relevant because there would still be events in the past and the concept of a future.
What would happen if time stopped? Our clocks, our breathing, our pulse, our everything. If time stopped, we would essentially have no idea. We would experience a period of no time, but we would be completely unaware that the experience of no time had occurred. If time stopped for an entire decade, we would be oblivious. This question allows us to compare the thought of time experienced by objects within the universe to other objects and creates a better understanding that if time were to stop, it would leave no trace. Saying that time has stopped would have no meaning because during that period, there would have been no time at all.
Concepts of time are purely social, and some may even feel as though they are a slave to it. Deadlines, completing tasks, and calendars are all examples of time getting in the way of our everyday life. Time weighs so heavily on us so much because we use it solely for the purpose of others. We use time to match our actions with those of someone else. Circling back around to my previous example of scheduling dinner with a friend. Instead of viewing this as a negative concept, we can instead choose to
Morgan Kesler, Section 4
Total Posts (Excluding Final): 5
Whatever else it may be, time is something to be grateful for... and to make the most of, as Cicero pointed out. And as Henry Thorea said, it is but the stream I go fishing it. In other words, it's the locus of my experience. It (and space) are where I live, or at least (in Kant's philosophy) it's a condition of my living.
ReplyDeleteAnd it doesn't wait, for anyone.
Thoreau
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