time chaptr 1

7/28/2019 Time Chaptr 1

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Aristotle was highly concerned with the changes thathappened in nature. This change seemed to prompt us to believe inthe presence of time. Aristotle said: Whether, if soul did not exist,time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked; for if there cannot be someone to count there cannot be anything thatcan be counted Thus he proposes that when we are ready toobserve, perceive and record change, we can easily understand the

passing of time. But when we disregard change and quit observingthe passage of time, time ceases to exist. Human reason andintellect thus plays a vital role in our understanding of time.Aristotle claimed that time is the measure of change but alsothat time is not change because a change may be faster or

slower, but not time he advocates the notion that there is notime apart from change Aristotle considered time as a naturalentity similar to matter itself, something which is hard to divideand something which is continuous. He said In respect of sizethere is no minimum; for every line is divided ad infinitum . Henceit is so with time.

Aristotle also propagated the notion of absolute time. He

believed that events determine the passage of time, the period between two events which when measured gives you the exacttime for these events to happen. Aristotle might have beenconsidering the natural events that took place all around nature.The seasonal cycles and other such natural phenomenon couldhave been predicted thus with some accuracy. Thus with the ideasof Aristotle, who dominated world thinking and philosophy for aconsiderable amount of time, the notion of time being absolute gota firm foundation. Aristotle also considered time to be a separateentity from space. Later on his ideas were widely challenged; it

became clear that there was no such thing as absolute time becauseit cannot be perceived directly. We evaluate and understand timedifferently, time is different for different people, even when two

people are observing the same event their evaluation of time would be different.


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Christian Theologians who had their deep faith in divine power of God behind the creation of the universe, believed timealso as an entity created by god. St. Augustine was of the opinionthat time never existed before our universe was created. But hedoes not hesitate to share his confusion with the philosophers of his time regarding the definition of time when he says Whatthen is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish toexplain it to him who asks me, I do not know. St. Augustine had avery subjective view of time. His ideas on time can be related withthose of Aristotle. He firmly believed that time is nothing in reality

but exists only in the minds apprehension of that reality.

Time gradually started to dominate over our consciousness and thus a need arose to generate methods tomeasure it, to contain it, to dominate it. Not all human beings wholived in societies at that time felt the need to record time. Somewere quite happy with observing the single most powerful entitythat was seen producing change- the sun. It was the giver of life,the destroyer, and the perpetuator of life. Observing the sun and its

shifting from one position in the sky to the next was more thanenough to understand the passing of time. But while living in acivilized setup one felt the need for proper time-keeping. Clockswere made in the Middle East and Africa some 5000 to 6000 yearsago. The need for order prompted men to make clocks.Agriculture, religious festivities, and other social activitiesrequired some kind of order; this order was provided by thekeeping of time.

Times was always present, but even when man tried tomeasure it he could never explain what it was, or where it could befound. But time can be measured with relation to some matter, or the motion of matter. The notion of time continuously flowingstarted to strengthen then, this was assisted by the invention of thehourglass and the water clock. In an hourglass, the flow of sand,


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which was carefully measured, reminded us of the flow of time.The water clocks were designed in such a way that the measureddripping of water governed our measurement of time. Hence timewas equated with the flow of particles, of matter. The ideas of the

philosopher Heraclites ring out clearly now. He had argued that theonly thing that was basic in nature was change and flow of time.Everything flows said Heraclites. Everything is in a state of fluxand thus we cannot step twice into the same river.

Still time was mostly perceived through the cyclic,regular occurrence of certain phenomenon. The seasonal cycle wasvital in this, together with the observation of the cosmos- the sun,

the moon, and the stars. The wonders of the sky (and the space beyond) were numerous. Cosmology thus played a vital part informing the concept of time. The stars and their differentconstellations were considered to signal some incident that mighthappen later in time. The eclipse of the moon also helped indetermining days, months, and years. Religion too started to takeroot, with its faith grounded in the human perception of change andthe passing of time, time which was just one among the entities

which served the all powerful perpetuator of this change- God.

PART: 2

Rene Descartes had a unique explanation of why time produceschanges or why time continuously changes while space remainsmore or less intact. He was of the opinion that God continuouslyre-creates everything after a certain period of time and henceeverything is seen to change with time. Material bodies have the

property of spatial extension but no temporal endurance, accordingto him. He thus concluded that time was a kind of sustenance or re-creation. A continuous process of change which was carried out

by the divine will of God. But seventeenth century physicists IsaacBarrow and his famous student Isaac Newton rejected this


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connection between time and change. Barrow was of the opinionthat time was beyond and independent of change, an entity whichhad existed even before the creation of the universe. Newtonfurther proposed that space and time were not material substances.This theory of Newton and Barrow is called as the Substantivaltheory of time.

Isaac Newton and his theories proved to be vital in theunderstanding of time and space. His three laws of motionrevolutionized the scientific way of observing time. Newton

believed in the concept of absolute time but refused to accept the possibility of an absolute space. Newton said Absolute space, in

its own nature, without relation to anything external, remainsalways similar and immovable. His theory on absolute time iscalled as Absolutism. Timelines were based on the concept of absolute time. Until the twentieth century this concept of absolutetime, as propagated by Newton and Galileo, prevailed.

Galileo used the pendulum cock and a water clock tomeasure time. These clocks helped him to further propagate his

theories on absolute time. The precise motion of a pendulum wascalculated in proportion with his own pulse rate in an experimentwhich he conducted in 1583. The workings of the water clock arerecorded in his work Two New Sciences (1638). These experimentsand their apparent success prompted Galileo to believe that time isthe same for all reference frames (absolute time). Later with thelaws of motion by Isaac Newton in the late seventeenth century,scientific ways to calculate time was conceived. The laws of

Newton were used in physics to calculate linear tine. Linear timeis similar to absolute time and hence is considered universallyapplicable to everything dealing with time. In Newtons words:Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself, and from its ownnature flows equably without regard to anything external and byanother name called duration: relative, apparent, and commontime, is some sensible and external measure of duration by the


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means of motion, which is commonly used instead of true time;such as an hour, a day, a month, a year.

With this new parameters of linear time established,science now had a novel way of observing and calculating theduration between events. It was a highly influential finding by

Newton and it received appreciation from the scientific circle.Clocks thus began to be recognized as devices capable of measuring time, linear time. This was a period of a whole newscientific revolution of experimentation and analysis. Proof of every hypothesis was provided and hence science became moreaccurate and popularly acceptable. This influence of science

dominated over the masses and their ideas on time and space. Newtons laws were even used to study the motion of celestial bodies. His ground breaking laws on gravity and motion henceopened a new chapter in the study of time.

Newtons absolutism was refuted by Gottfried Leibniz.His studies were also based on change. Leibniz proposed histheories on time which he considered to be relative; he said I

hold space to be something merely relativeas an order of coexistences, as time is an order of successions. Newtonchallenged the theories of Leibniz with his remarks on time andspace: Absolute space, in its own nature, without relation toanything external, always remains similar and immovable.Leibniz objected to Newtons views and proposed his relationaltheory of time. His argument again was that time was not an entitywhich had an independent existence. It too depended on thehappening of events no matter how irregular they were. Leibnizconsidered the overall ordering of events as time.

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant consideredtime and space as two forms of human intuition. He consideredthe relationship of time with the human mind, a unique concept atthat time. Time, for him, was more how the mind of a person


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perceived it. Kant felt that human senses could only perceive theworld through time and space. In his Critique of Pure Reason hesays that the representation of space cannot be obtained from therelations of appearance through experience, but this outer experience is itself first possible only through this representation.Kants idea was that we can never observe the presence of time butcan experience change, and the events that happen in time. Kantcalled time and space as two forms of human intuition. He was of the opinion that time was more in the psyche rather than in the

physique. There is no actual physical perception of time but weexperience the world as a series of processes in time and space.This was a whole new idea on the way of observing time. The

conscious mind was vital here and time became a meta-physicalentity. Change happened not when the physical object actuallychanged but when the mind perceives the fact that an object nowdifferent from its former state and has changed.

While the theories on the concept of time advanced,instruments to measure time were also evolving simultaneously.Mechanical clocks, which made use of weights and springs, began

to appear in the late 1300s. The first clocks did not have hour or minute hands, but later clocks included these also. In 1656,Christian Huggens invented the pendulum clock for popular use.These clocks were much accurate compared to earlier varieties.Clocks were vital for navigation purposes also. The knowledge of time and that too accurate time helped sailors to reach their destinations safely and on time. In 1761, John Harrison succeededin inventing a small clock accurate enough to use for navigation atsea. This added a whole new dimension to time and time keeping.Accuracy was vital at sea where there were no actual landmarksto determine ones position. The only true companion to the sailors

being the pole star, but it was not enough. Thousands of shipswere lost at sea or were destroyed because of the inability tocalculate precise time. With the invention of the chronometer byHarrison, navigation became easier. Thus the quest for time, in a


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way, assisted sea explorations. Such explorations would later assistin colonization and imperialism is another aspect of this altogether.

By the early 1800s mechanical parts identical to eachother were produced which facilitated the mass production of clocks. Clocks became cheaper and popular. Families could nowafford for them, time started to become more personal in a sensea consumer item. From here begins the steps which would lead totodays lack of regard for time. The concept of linear time was atthis time being promoted by Barrow, Newton, Kant and other

philosophers and scientists. This strengthened the place of theconcept of linear time in the mentality of nineteenth century

European science and philosophy.

PART: 3

Up until the beginning of the twentieth century, peoplecontinued to believe in absolute time. With Albert Einsteinscience found new ways to challenge the notions of absolute time.His Theory of Relativity revolutionized the study of space and

time. This groundbreaking theory in science put an end toabsolute time. Time became more personal, each person whoexperienced an event in time and space must perceive itdifferently. Stephen Hawking in his A Brief History of Time saysThe theory of relativity, however, forces us to changefundamentally our ideas of space and time. We must accept thattime is not completely separate from and independent of spaceTo quote Hawking again: the discovery that the speed of lightappeared the same to every observer, no matter how he wasmoving, led to the theory of relativity and in that one had toabandon the idea that there was a unique absolute time. Instead,each observer would have his own measure of time as recorded bya clock that he carried: clocks carried by different observers wouldnot necessarily agree. Thus time became a more personal concept,relative to the observer who measured it.


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Relative time is considered with regard to some motion.This is similar to the measuring of time using the rhythmicalmotion of a pendulum, a clock or the motion of the heavenly

bodies. Relative time is against the notion of absolute time andhence it may not be accurate. It will vary from person to person.The theory of relativity is grounded in the study of light and itsspeed. The speed of light is now used to measure time.

Another development was in the concept of relationship between space and time, a unique concept of space time. In thevery words of Minkowski who played a vital role in promoting thisconcept of the union of space and time : Henceforth space by

itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mereshadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve anindependent reality. Scientific discoveries in the field of astronomy aided in the understanding of the universe and in it theconcept of time. Edwin Hubbles observations suggested the

possibility of a Big Bang as the reason behind the origin of theuniverse and with it the birth of time.

In this period heated debates were also held on whether time is real or just an imaginary construct. The philosopher JohnEllis Mc Taggart was foremost in this debate. He joined the longline of early philosophers including Zeno, Plato, Spinoza, andHegel by claiming that time did not exist. Philosophers includingMc Taggart claimed that the passage of time was mere illusion andthe only real entity was the present. He argues that therelationship between the past, present, and the future iscontinuously changing, but time is based upon this relationship

between past, present, and the future. A concept which keeps onchanging and has no firm base to stand upon is a false concept;hence time is merely an illusion. In the words of Mc Taggart fromhis The Unreality of Time, Position in time, as time appears tousare distinguished in two ways. Each position is earlier thansome, and later than some, of the other positions. And each


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position is either past, present, or future. The distinctions of theformer class are permanent, while those of the latter are not. Butan event, which is now present, was future and will be past.

Mc Taggart further asserts his claims by saying, And itis because the distinctions of past, present and future seem to me to

be essential for time, that I regard time as unreal. Mc Taggartimplements his theories on time to study the concept of history.He observes that historical events have same time characteristicsas made up stories. Stories and histories are based upon the past,

present, and the future, concepts which he proved as ever changing, hence histories rely on the memory of the past, which

varies from person to person and thus is no better than made upstories.

PART: 4

The advancement in science has facilitated in the better understanding of our universe. The quest for understanding our origins thus becomes a quest to crack the confusion surrounding

time. Stephen Hawking and his revelations regarding the BigBang have proved to be vital. He considers the logical possibilitythat time might have had its beginning with the Big Bang since anearlier time simply would not be defined. According to him,The laws of science do not distinguish between the past and thefuture. Events are described as things that happen at a particular

point in space and time. While space and time are unique for allevents, they too are affected by the events that happen in theuniverse. Thus Hawking makes it clear that our views of thenature of time have changed over the years.

Hawking uses the second law of thermodynamics,which says that in a closed system disorder, or entropy, alwaysincreases with time, to put forward his unique concept of theArrow of Time. He says that, The increase of disorder or


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entropy with time is one example of what is called an arrow of time, something that distinguishes the past from the future, givinga direction to time. His views on the Psychological Arrow of Time is very insightful, according to him the psychological arrowof time, is the direction in which we feel time passes, thedirection in which we remember the past but not the future.

Recent debates have been held on discussing whether theuniverse really had a beginning and with it did time too begin,and also whether with the end of this universe time too wouldend. Scientists have put forward the concept of the Big Rip a

phenomenon to happen some trillion years in the future. But these

scientific theories indirectly give strength to our notions regardingthe ever continuing presence of time. Their assumptions that timemight have begun with the Big Bang prompts many to place time

besides the question of our origins and the concept of change.The general theory of relativity supports this claim; it says thatspace, time, and the universe began with the Big Bang some 13.7

billion years ago. Before the Big Bang there was no space or time.

Kari Enqvist says that, In the theory of relativity, theconcept of time begins with the Big Bang the same way as parallels of latitude begin at the North Pole In the twentiethcentury scientists have found solutions to Einsteins generaltheory of relativity that helped in propagating the concept of closed loops of time. These loops or closed curves in space timeallows a person to go forward continuously in time until onearrives in ones own past. Scientist Gdel argues for the unrealityof time. Physicists of the twenty first century are more inclinedtowards the belief of time being unreal. They consider time as nota fundamental part of nature. Debates are held on this issue andmost philosophers agree on the presence of time, but like St.Augustine they too are unable to define what time is.


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time chaptr 1

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