What Is Time ?
The idea that time is an illusion is a philosophical concept that has been debated for centuries. Some have argued that time is a mental construct or a human invention, rather than a real and objective aspect of the universe.
Does time exist or is it just an illusion?
The idea that time is an illusion is a philosophical concept that has been debated for centuries. Some have argued that time is a mental construct or a human invention, rather than a real and objective aspect of the universe. But our everyday intuition says that time is real, it flows like a river. It has a direction and it always moves forward. But think for a moment about Einstein’s theory of relativity, where time and space are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called “space-time.”
In everyday life time works very well, but as soon as we try to look far into space or deep into the tiny world of quantum, time becomes something very complex.
Is time just a memory? Would there be time without memories? Perhaps, after all, time is not a physics problem, but one for neuroscientists.
Many physicists, philosophers, and even poets have studied and speculated on the true nature of time, but there is still much to be learned about this mysterious and elusive concept.
Reading again Thomas Mann’s monumental work, “The Magic Mountain,” I came upon his interpretation of the nature of time. He writes:
“What is time? A secret – insubstantial and omnipotent. A prerequisite of the external world a motion intermingled and fused with bodies, existing and moving in space.
But would there be no time, if there were no motion? No motion is there were no time? What a question!
Is time a function of space? Or vice-versa? Or are the two identical? An even bigger question!
Time is active, by nature it is much like a verb, it both ‘ripens’ and ‘bringing forth.’ And what does it bring forth? Change? Now is not then, here is not there – for in both cases, motion lies in between. But since we measure time by a circular motion closed in on itself, we could just as easily say that its motion, and change are rest and stagnation – for now, the then is constantly repeated in the now, the there in the here.
Moreover, since, despite our best desperate attempts, we cannot imagine an end to time or a finite border around space, we have decided to ‘think’ of them as eternal and infinite – in the apparent belief that even if we are not totally successful, this marks some improvement. But does not the very positing of eternity and infinity imply the logical mathematical negation of things limited and finite, their relative reduction to zero? Is a sequence of events possible in eternity, a juxtaposition of objects in infinity? How does our makeshift assumption of eternity and infinity square with concepts like distance, motion, change, or even the very existence of a finite body in space?
Now there’s a real question for you!