Questions tagged [time]
By Einstein's definition, time is what clocks measure – but how can we define “clock” without referring to time? This tag is for such philosophical questions about the many unresolved issues concerning time. Though this includes questions about the interpretation of physical theories and concepts, if your question is about what current physics can quantitatively predict or explain, it is probably not about philosophy and therefore off-topic.
355
questions
0
votes
3
answers
94
views
I have a premise about infinite timeline, how is it?
I think that in an infinite timeline without a start, if such a timeline could exist, the only way things could work is like this:
The only things that can happen are those that already happened an ...
- 5,887
2
votes
1
answer
147
views
Does eudemonia depend on tense?
Not asking about any particular concept of well being or happiness. The question may seem odd: if I am happy today now then I will have been happy for the day. But I suspect it at least may be more ...
- 1,102
1
vote
4
answers
180
views
How is the beginning of something determined?
Imagine I have an egg, powder, cocoa, flour, etc and want to make a "cake". I have been told the "cake" doesn't begin at any time because it's just the cocoa, egg, flour, etc in a ...
- 5,887
2
votes
4
answers
122
views
If all things come to an end, then wouldn't all things coming to an end itself end?
I saw this question here https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/18991/translating-all-things-come-to-an-end-to-latin and immediately I thought "if all things come to an end, then the action of ...
- 4,887
-1
votes
1
answer
48
views
Arguments against personal omphalism [closed]
Personal omphalism is, for a lack of a better term (let me know if you know of a better word), what I call the possibility of one's own mind having come into existence at any point, with one's ...
- 2,546
3
votes
4
answers
112
views
Is the moment of change numerically identical with the time it occurs?
Is the moment of change numerically identical with the time it occurs?
If the moment of change is today at noon, is that the exact same time as today at noon, whatever it is else happens then?
It may ...
CommunityBot
- 1
1
vote
3
answers
56
views
The scale of decisions (Time and location) and chaos
Some ideas I am seeking thoughts on:
When I place a glass on the bench, how much was decision? I [presumably] did not decide to place it with atomic accuracy. What are the bounds of accuracy ...
CommunityBot
- 1
0
votes
1
answer
109
views
The significance of the NOW
This is a final summary of my concerns. I've asked similar questions but this is a summary. I hope you clever people can alleviate my confusion and nervousness.
Special Relativity says there is no ...
- 5,887
1
vote
2
answers
88
views
Does time ever go backwards in Special Relativity
If I move away from an obsverer at high speed, does that obsverer go backwards in time relative to me? Due to things like surfaces of simultaneity?
Or is this overinterpreting of coordinates and ...
- 14.5k
-1
votes
1
answer
72
views
Andromeda paradox confusion
In the Andromeda paradox if I walk past you we have different ideas of what's happening now on Andromeda, does this lead to two versions of Andromeda? Do the Andromedeans know what they are doing in ...
- 5,887
1
vote
3
answers
56
views
Does special relativity change how we should think of other people's consciousness alongside ours
Does special relativity change how we should think of other people's consciousness alongside ours.
I've been reading a lot on here and am not sure what to think.
It's pretty crazy really I didn't know ...
- 5,921
2
votes
5
answers
215
views
Special Relativity - Discussions I've seen online
I've seen some odd discussions on this forum that have stuck with me. But I've seen there are some very clever physicists and philosophers on here who actually understand relativity...
In relativity ...
- 2,652
0
votes
0
answers
27
views
Kant Critique of Pure Reason, how is time subjective to human intuition yet objective in regard to appearances?
I'm confused on a section in the Critique of Pure Reason. Kant says "Hence time is merely a subjective condition of our (human) intuition (an intuition that is always sensible-- i.e. inasmuch as ...
3
votes
4
answers
189
views
Was Time invented or discovered?
Me and my elder brother were just talking about some stuff then he asked me a question: Was time invented or discovered and how we define time?
So I googled and it says this:
The measurement of time ...
- 5,887
2
votes
1
answer
34
views
Ontology over time
Looking for any recommended references for this topic, I was recommended a good book on logic previously on here, and found it extremely enlightening, mainly how we deal with issues like the ship of ...
- 15k
2
votes
5
answers
209
views
What to make of "time" and "time rightly spent" in the context of "the purpose of life"?
Friedrich Nietzsche in his Thus spoke Zarathustra told us a man should become a "overman" or "ubermensch" i.e. someone who believes in nihilism of universe (believing that life has ...
CommunityBot
- 1
8
votes
21
answers
10k
views
Is there such thing as the present?
I know there are other hypotheses on time, but for this question lets go with this definition of time:
The indefinite, constant, continued progress of existence.
Now we have the three parts of time: ...
2
votes
1
answer
91
views
Difference between mental states and mental events?
What is the main difference between mental states and mental events in philosophy of mind? I heard from a lecturer that mental events are those entities which occur instantly or in short period of ...
- 15k
0
votes
0
answers
70
views
Special Relativity philosophical implications
If an observer on Andromeda moves forwards and backwards their notion of now here on Earth sways back and forth over hundreds of years
Why don't we constantly oscillate over hundreda of years whenever ...
- 5,921
4
votes
0
answers
49
views
For Kant, why does temporal synthesis need to happen?
Taking our experience of time... this is how I understand what Kant is saying.
There's this non-temporal manifold of sensation. I am picturing it like the pages of a flipbook. Images in succession ...
- 2,466
1
vote
3
answers
152
views
Views on the Implications of Temporal Subjectivity upon Shared Experience
With notions of subjective time (i.e. time as empirically inert) like those put forward by Berkeley, Hume, Leibniz and Kant, is there anything out there which speculates on the potential for a varied ...
CommunityBot
- 1
4
votes
3
answers
164
views
Any modern context for Boethius' two types of now?
1,500 years ago the Roman senator & philosopher Boethius wrote of two types of 'the now':
“Nunc fluens facit tempus, nunc stans facit aeternitatum."
The now that passes produces time, the ...
- 5,887
3
votes
5
answers
188
views
Finite and infinite temporal duration
I am trying to wrap my head around different philosophical concepts of 'forever'. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there to be three versions of 'forever' in terms of temporal duration:
...
- 163
1
vote
7
answers
2k
views
Philosophy - Does Einstein's Block Universe theory prove Nietzsche's Eternal Return theory is true?
If the Past, Present, and Future all exist in exactly the same way, then every single moment would be a ‘Now’ moment for me. it would also mean that me being dead in the future is equally real in the ...
3
votes
5
answers
242
views
If something can’t come from nothing, then has an infinite period of time already passed?
Assuming that something really can’t come from nothing (I know it’s controversial but if it’s true)...
Then at any given point in time (t), something exists and therefore something also existed at t-1....
- 1,005
0
votes
1
answer
118
views
Help Understanding an Argument For Temporal Parts
The following argument is presented from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy regarding the existence of perdurantism (temporal parts):
A third argument from STR to perdurantism does not rely on ...
CommunityBot
- 1
-2
votes
3
answers
167
views
Is it possible to ascribe a value to time? Is time valueless?
Some argue that it has no inherent value, while some believe that it has limited but valuable worth. Some theorists argue that because time can be measured and quantified, its value as an object can ...
- 4,187
3
votes
2
answers
115
views
Why is Diogenes the Cynic's solution to Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox insufficient?
According to Wikipedia's discussion of Zeno's Dichotomy paradox (emphasis mine),
According to Simplicius, Diogenes the Cynic said nothing upon hearing Zeno's arguments, but stood up and walked, in ...
- 1,990
2
votes
1
answer
119
views
What is McTaggart's vicious circle problem with the A series?
In The Unreality of Time (1908), J. Ellis McTaggart identifies a fatal vicious circle in the A series of time. What is the problem? The sun rises every day and ever-finer measurements of time are ...
- 5,887
6
votes
2
answers
162
views
Can changing the past ever be a coherent concept?
First, let me emphasize that I'm talking about changing THE past. Accounts with multiple timelines, say where travelling back in time causes a branching timeline, don't have this problem.
Here is the ...
- 5,887
3
votes
5
answers
156
views
Is being non existent the same as being zero in quantity
For instance,
There does not exist unicorn on earth. There are zero unicorns on earth.
How are these two different?
One could argue being zero in quantity is a temporal property. The number may change ...
- 5,887
0
votes
4
answers
110
views
Do preceding events cause subsequent ones in a four-dimensionalist world?
I feel like this question has a good chance of having been asked here before, but the first ten-odd "similar questions" listed by the site when I composed the title didn't cover what I'm ...
- 5,887
2
votes
3
answers
598
views
Does Eternalism imply looping consciousness?
If the idea of Eternalism as expressed by those like J.M.E. McTaggart and Sean Carroll is true (as much of physics seems to suggest), the idea of the present moment being more real than the past or ...
- 5,887
-1
votes
1
answer
68
views
Are we all in a state of existence and nonexistence?
Why?
Because if something exists it needs something that observes it otherwise it doesn't exist or...?
If this is true then at some point in this universe we all will very likely vanish (Big Freeze or ...
- 7,108
1
vote
7
answers
256
views
Do we exist in the same dimension as time?
For the past few week I’ve had conversations with many forums about this question that’s very pertinent to me. Is time fundamental just like space, or is it simply a property of the progressive nature ...
- 7,723
-1
votes
3
answers
168
views
Simultaneity of Astronauts
Let us image a spacecraft in fast orbit. Since it took off its clock has lost several minutes relative to Earth time. From the ground we can speak to the astronauts, although there is 1 second radio ...
- 4,187
6
votes
8
answers
3k
views
Infinite past with a beginning?
I can conceive of an infinite past with a beginning. I can in fact represent this idea by a simple diagram, part analogical, part symbolic. So, to me, this idea is a logical possibility.
I initially ...
- 5,305
0
votes
5
answers
196
views
Please explain to me why it said that there is not only one present [closed]
Can you please explain to me in simple words why would the fact that time can go through different speeds imply that we don't share the same present? Because from where I stand it seems perfectly ...
- 2,652
-3
votes
1
answer
76
views
Does time have an origin? [closed]
First I want to assume that time exists most probably in present and nowhere else. Time is more a concept to evaluate how fast things go if you think about it...
Then I want to consider that if the &...
- 3,711
1
vote
2
answers
138
views
Presentism and change
Can presentists account for the passage of the future through the present into the past?
Presentism is the view that only present things exist and what’s
present changes (i.e., things change, time ...
CommunityBot
- 1
1
vote
2
answers
130
views
Can God change the past?
St. Augustine famously said that God is outside of time. And it is said that Peter Damian thought that God can change the past (I did not find the original source for this. If anyone knows and can ...
- 21
2
votes
2
answers
81
views
Anyone claim that the future begins before the present ends?
Who, if anyone, claims that the future begins before the present ends? I will spare you the tortured reasoning behind the (implicit) claim someone might. I'd be especially interested in any ...
- 41
2
votes
1
answer
126
views
Do "things" that are present depend on Dasein?
Do "things" that are present depend on Dasein? I have read Being and Time, but a very long time ago. I am not sure if I mean present at hand, but I do mean in general anything that exists in ...
- 4,187
1
vote
7
answers
303
views
Kantian things in themselves not in space or time. How do we locate them?
I have one nagging question about things in themselves being outside of space and time. How do we locate objects in space and time? Why are some objects in our vicinity and others far away? The ...
- 39
1
vote
0
answers
30
views
Does the bounded event constraint mean we cannot talk about events that occur now ending?
Carlotta Smith in the paper Reference Time without Tense in Recent Advances in the Syntax and Semantics of Tense, Aspect and Modality volume imposes the following condition.
The Bounded Event ...
- 41.7k
1
vote
1
answer
74
views
Is time fundamental like space or only a tool for measurement? [closed]
Time is to distance or acceleration what progression is to space. Time “exists” like distance as a measurement but is not ‘real’ like me, you or the earth that we stand. Time is a measurement of ...
- 1,244
0
votes
0
answers
33
views
If there are abstract cases of space and time, then why wouldn't all the other abstract objects be located inside of them?
As per the SEP article on abstract objects:
Some of the archetypes of abstractness are non-spatiotemporal in a straightforward sense. It makes no sense to ask where the cosine function was last ...
- 7,108
2
votes
6
answers
214
views
How do we know (i.e. justify our belief) that time exists without "proving too much"?
How do we know that time exists?
This is a complex question.
First, we cannot make sense of a question like this without first establishing what we mean by knowledge.
For convenience, let's pick the ...
1
vote
3
answers
513
views
How does biological evolution work in the block universe/b-theory of time?
The b-theory of time is often described as a film reel where the whole reel exists, but we can only view one frame at a time.
The problem I have with this analogy is that it starts to feel too ...
CommunityBot
- 1
2
votes
1
answer
193
views
How do Kantian's respond to the "Neglected Alternative"?
In his Critique of Pure Reason, Kant posits two seemingly contradictory claims:
The nature of Things in Themselves, as they exist apart from the phenomenal world, are unknowable.
Time and Space do ...
CommunityBot
- 1