Science Forums 2

[Jehu]

What is Time?

The Oxford Dictionary defines time as “the indefinite and continuous duration of experience seen as a series of events progressing from the past through the present into the future.”

This definition has , however, one critical flaw, for the use of the term “duration” injects a element of circularity, for a duration is a time. I would propose that we substitute the term “flow” as its expresses the necessary quality, but without the circularity. Time then, is “the indefinite and continuous flow of experience seen as a series of events progressing from the past through the present into the future.”

This definition may now be broken into two distinct propositions, one defining time itself, and the other defining the appearance of time:

(1) Time is the indefinite and continuous flow of experience, and
(2) Time appears to be a series of events progressing from the past through the present into the future.

Let us begin with the second definition. Imagine that you set out on a road trip and at some instant you were able to stop the flow of all existence. At that point, there would be only the road that you have already traveled and the road which you have not yet traveled, and there would be no other road in between. The past and the present, like the two roads, meet in the instant that is the present. Thus the present is only a gate or portal between that which is no longer and that which is not yet. This portal or instant that we call the “present”, has no temporal extent, and so no event may take place there, for any event, however brief, must have a duration. Now, an event cannot take place in the past, for the past no longer exists, and it cannot take place in the future, for the future does not yet exist, and it cannot take place in the present, for there is not enough time. Consequently, that which we see as a series of events progressing from the past through the present into the future, is merely an appearance, an illusion.

This brings us back to definition number one, “Time is the indefinite and continuous flow of experience.” This brings us to the question of experience. To experience is to be aware of or acquainted with some thing, that is to say, some idea, feeling, object, property, or activity. However, at this point, we can no longer pursue time as an independent “thing”, but must consider it as one of the five fundamental and interdependent elements of physics: space, time, matter, energy, and motion/change. In which case, the question “what is time” expands to become “what is reality”.

Would anyone care to enquire further along these lines?