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
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Physics, "the beginning of time" and common sense
If we accept the result of big-bang theory that time does not indefinitely extend back in the past, how can this result be smoothly integrated with the common-sense view that for every time-instant ...
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53
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Does the present only exist to the extent that it leaves traces in the future?
Under what conditions can we conclude from the position that the past only exists to the extent it leaves traces in the present to the position that the present only exists to the extent it leaves ...
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2
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What can we conclude about consciousness in the past? [duplicate]
All we can be certain of is consciousness in the present. What can we conclude about consciousness in the past? Can we even conclude that it existed? Whenever someone presents "evidence" of ...
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3
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598
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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 ...
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Beginning of time problems?
Dear philosophy stackexchange,
I'm curious as to whether there have been arguments by philosophers for there being a finite past/future or whether it has always been past/future temporally infinite? ...
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500
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Why isn't time understood to be relative motion? [closed]
Summarize the problem
In every way one would observe time, time can be thought of as relative motion. In every way that one would measure time, time is measured by comparing motion. These are ...
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3
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319
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If-then statement and time between antecedent and consequent
Suppose the following statement. "If I kick the ball then the ball will hit the wall." Can this sentence have a truth value? I mean the time that I kick the ball, it hasn't reached the wall so the ...
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4
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722
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Zeno's stadium paradox: If space is not continuous or discrete, what is it?
Zeno's paradoxes are paradoxical because they show that in a world of continuous time and space, there cannot be any motion, thus all motion that we see are some kind of illusion. His paradoxes then ...
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193
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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 ...
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58
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Relational spacetime and simultaneity?
I once asked a similar question but didn't really get the answer or discussion that I was looking for and decided to start clean. Recall that in Galilean (classical) spacetimes its assumed that space-...
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3
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299
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How would a mathematical theory of the universe incorporate time?
In Einstein's theory of relativity, we start with describing events as coordinates in 4D Minkowski space. All events that have occurred in the past and future would then be represented as points in ...
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120
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Is the existence of time independent of perception?
Many known physical phenomena are dependent on time, and are in fact a function of time.
However if I think of reality as something that exists independently of perception by an observer, then it ...
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3
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Given that we do not have the ability to time travel backwards, can we prove that there will never be backwards time travel? [closed]
I have heard that if there will exist backwards time travel in some reasonable form in the future, presumably they would send the technology back so that we have it earlier. Since we don't have it, ...
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4
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Would it be logically possible that the Universe has a beginning in time but an infinite amount of time has elapsed since this beginning?
Imagine that the Universe had a temporal beginning but no temporal end. At the beginning the Universe has a finite size, and as time passes its size increases exponentially. And the number of ...
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Probability of something given that time will exist forever?
What is the probability of something happening given that time always will exist? If time never ends, is it 100% likely that I will be born again after death?
I have a great way to illustrate my ...
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3
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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 ...
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266
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Does Shoemaker's thought experiment about time really work?
Shoemaker gives us an interesting thought experiment about time:
Assume that an entire universe is divided into three parts -- A, B,
and C. Every 3 years, everything in A freezes for a year. ...
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Questions about Quantum Logic?
Carl von Weizsäcker, who worked on the topic of Quantum Logic several times, said that Quantum Logic was temporal in contrast with Classical Logic which would be atemporal (that would mean that truth ...
- 459
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0
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Perdurantism applied to non-physical objects
I have recently been reading up a lot on perdurantism aka four dimensionalism including papers by Rea, Sider, Bittner and Donnelly among others and I was interested in knowing whether there was any ...
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209
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How do philosophers expain change if time is discontinuous?
How do philosophers explain discontinuous time? I don't mean how do they account for it, but how do they show what is meant by the term. What is meant by it? Specifically, how do they account for ...
user38026
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6
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347
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The passing of time
Did the passing of time come before everything else? As in, how long was there "nothing"? And if we can put a time on that, wouldn't time itself be something? And if so, is time the thing that "...
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If the passage of time is an illusion, does that mean I also experience time not passing?
There are a few questions on this site about time passing and illusion. And it seems that our psychological experience of the flow of time might be best accounted for as illusions are
https://www....
user38026
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3
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183
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Is is possible to explain the psychological experience of the flow of time?
There is a physical explanation of some irreversibility, via the second law of dynamics
... the second law implies that time is asymmetrical with respect to the
amount of order in an isolated ...
user38026
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118
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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 ...
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200
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How does phenomenology deal with time-consciousness？
How does the strict phenomenologist deal with atypical forms of consciousness that an analytical philosopher need only point to brain function to explain? For instance, how does phenomenology deal ...
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2
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124
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Is there truly an objective difference between what is and what could be?
"What is" versus "What could be".
What role does language as a way of knowing play in determining “what” something is? Is the desire to change the way we view the world in Art connected to or ...
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6
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847
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Question About Shoemaker's Thought Experiment (Time Without Change)
In his argument that time intervals can exist without change, Shoemaker gives us an interesting thought experiment. For those unfamiliar, here it is:
Assume that an entire universe is divided into ...
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2
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Is everything still and happens at the same time?
I really don't know if there's a theory that explains if everything happens at the same time, meaning that there is no such thing as time and time is simply an illusion.
This line of thought comes ...
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2
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169
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Is the permanent self still tenable? [closed]
I wonder what a possible objection could be:
P1) The self is static in change;
P2) If P1 is true then change cannot be the self otherwise the self wouldn't be static;
C) Therefore, change is the ...
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1
answer
424
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Meaning of a diagram by Althusser
A diagram by Althusser captioned “The future lasts a long time” (the title of his memoirs) appears on several of his book covers. Below is my own reproduction, based on a sketched version found here.
...
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If only the present is ideal in McTaggart's sense are we still obliged to accept his C-series or something close to it?
If only the present in the A series is ideal in McTaggert's sense are we still obliged into accepting his C-series or something close to it, in order to account for the appearance of change? It seems ...
user38026
3
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2
answers
232
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Do Aristotle's three laws of logic apply to statements about the future?
I have just read about Aristotle's Three Laws of Logic. I was wondering if statements such as "There is a chance of it raining in the next hour" can be evaluated using the three laws. Can you apply ...
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1
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143
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Is a dog from the present considered to be the same thing as the same dog 1 sec in the future? [closed]
Is a dog from the present considered to be the same thing as the same dog 1 sec in the future? What are the distinctions philosophers tend to make when we refer to the same thing at a different time. ...
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5
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595
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Do some philosophers believe there is no present, past, and future -- and if so how on earth do they?
Nor does 20th (21st) -century physics countenance the idea that there is anything ontologically special about the past, as opposed to the present and the future. In fact, it fails to use these ...
user38026
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119
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Is it true that the order of spacelike events depends on an observer? Does that mean block universe is true?
So I was thinking, as philosophers do, if even the past and the future is relative and the order of events can change, then block universe must be true. Is my reasoning right or wrong?
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2
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Divine temporality and spacetime
According to the IEP,
The majority position today, at least among philosophers, is that God is everlasting but temporal.
How is the idea of divine temporality reconciled with special relativity? ...
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I don't understand Parmenides's argument for why we can't think about what doesn't exist
I have been learning about Parmenides, and I don't think I am correctly understanding his argument for why we can't think/speak about things that don't exist. I tried to apply his logic to a ...
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2
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194
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Does a two-way infinite time imply that every event is recurrent?
If time were to be infinite in both the past and the future, does that mean that every event must occur an infinite number of times?
If time is only infinite in one direction, it is easy to see how ...
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3
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345
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How would a theist answer this argument against heaven?
Some, if not most, theists assert that time exists in heaven. How can this be?
If time is at all based on physical laws (spacetime, emergence, etc.), it won't be able to exist as it does currently in ...
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1
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111
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Does the real line mean that the start and end points of any line must exist?
In mathematics, a real number is a value of a continuous quantity that
can represent a distance along a line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_number
We consider the set of real numbers, ...
user38026
2
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2
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624
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If time is emergent, how can time exist in a Christian heaven?
Many physicists say that time is an emergent property from quantum phenomenon, such as entanglement.
Many Christians theologians also posit that time will exist in heaven, forever.
Let's say that ...
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1
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165
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Does the reversibility of laws of physics prove that causality doesn't exist?
Does the fact that the fundamental laws are symmetric with respect to direction of time show that causation does not exist? Since causality always requires the cause to precede the effect, but laws of ...
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1
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The strangness of time [closed]
What happened before time itself?Is a time period of an event necessary to say that this happened?In physics the passing of time is relativistic depending on your frame of reference.But we cant escape ...
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Does Tegmark's hypothesis include dynamical mathematical structures?
Tegmark's hypothesis is the idea that mathematical structures are physical and thus have physical existence (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_universe_hypothesis)
Zuse's thesis says that ...
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Are Wittgenstein's propositions about death incompatible with momentariness?
Are Wittgenstein's propositions about death incompatible with momentariness?
I think mean that death, which is a cessation that is not lived through, cannot change life, and we are immortal outside ...
user38026
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1
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75
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Is there a phenomenological real time, for Husserl?
Is there a phenomenological real time, for Husserl? I've read some relevant sections, I think in the Crisis of the European Sciences, but could not determine an answer from them.
If it isn't, must we ...
user38026
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8
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3k
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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 ...
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Which philosophers has proven existing is being part of the change in time?
Does anyone know any philosopher(s)/mathematician(s) who has proven that existing is being part of change in time or a journal article from a credential academician/scholar who conclude this with ...
user35095
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111
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Is visualization : space :: simulation : time?
I'm trying to find the right word to complete this analogy.
visualization : space :: w : time?
The closest I could get is "simulation," but is this a good answer?
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Is there an aspect of the person that is outside time and or size? Does anyone argue that to defeat nihilism?
Is there an aspect of the person that is outside time or scale? Does anyone argue that to defeat nihilism, and does that come up in discussing value nihilism?
I just think that anyone who claims that ...
user35983