Word meaning time and space

• #1

«The movements of the phantom armies often defy earthly laws of time and space, as well as belief.»

Hi Forum,

In the above quote, what does the expression «time and space» refer to? I think I understand the word «time», but is still confused about the word «space». Somehow I visualize space as a part of «outer space,» where austornauts roam and explore. Thanks in advance for your effort and time.

• #2

I think «space» in this context refers to the restriction of movement through space. If someone could disappear from one place and reappear a moment later a thousand miles away, he would be defying the earhly laws of time and space, in a poetic sense.

It’s a common collocation: «time and space.» There is even a commercial currently airing in the U.S. where a man says something like, «With this new remote I feel like I have the power to bend the laws of time and space.» I hadn’t really thought about it before. I wonder how one could defy the law of space? It does sound very odd by itself.

Thinking about it a little more, I suppose a genie being able to fit into a tiny bottle is defying the laws of space (conservation of mass.) I’m very interested to see what others have to say about this. It’s one of those unexamined phrases for me, I guess.

• #3

«Laws of space» would refer to laws of physics and geometry. «Space» in this context is a hard word to visualize. Just going by the Random House definition:

«space, n.
1.the unlimited or incalculably great three-dimensional realm or expanse in which all material objects are located and all events occur.»

Essentially, the phantom armies are doing wacky things like walking through walls and being in two places at once.

Thinking about it a little more, I suppose a genie being able to fit into a tiny bottle is defying the laws of space (conservation of mass.)

Maybe genies are just gaseous? That’s an odd example with genies, given that they’re supposed to be able to create castles out of thin air and other crazy things.

• #4

Wow, Xqby, you explanation «has made my day». I really want to try to use that expression. I really mean to say that I enjoy reading your explanation, especially the part that say «…doing wacky things like walking through walls and being in two places at once.» I don’t know what gets to me, but I just laugh and laugh.

Thanks for the wonderful explanations, JamesM and Xqby.

• #5

Space is what exists inside the three dimensions of length, width and height. It can be any shape.

• #6

«The movements of the phantom armies often defy earthly laws of time and space, as well as belief.»

Hi Forum,

In the above quote, what does the expression «time and space» refer to? I think I understand the word «time», but is still confused about the word «space». Somehow I visualize space as a part of «outer space,» where austornauts roam and explore. Thanks in advance for your effort and time.

I have always thought that the law ans space of time would be something along the lines also as dissapearing in space, nothing matters in space like movement or time or pain.

• #7

Kevin, thank you. And MissTinker, welcome to the English Language Forum. I appreciate your time to offer your explanation.

• #8

I think the use of space in the sense of space, the final frontier, is getting in the way of understanding.

Space, as KevinB has explained, is everywhere, including inside my shoe on the floor.
In conventional physics, there are four dimensions — height (top to bottom), width (side to side), depth (back to front), and time (then to then).
The terms vary but that’s not important.

Did anyone mention that austronauts are really astronauts?

На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать грубую лексику.

На основании Вашего запроса эти примеры могут содержать разговорную лексику.

Предложения

Give them time and space to develop additional skills for example business management.

Мотивируйте их, дайте им время и пространство для разработки дополнительных навыков, например, для управления бизнесом.

Depended on you across time and space.

Save valuable time and space in your kitchen.

А вы сохраните драгоценное время и место на кухонной полке.

Its value transcends time and space.

More probing a mental dimension beyond time and space.

I am beyond time and space.

Giving kids the time and space to be creative.

Everyone needs private time and space.

I give them time and space to express themselves.

Nothing lasts forever but time and space.

I give them time and space to reveal themselves.

Capturing motion through time and space into a single photograph.

Я восхищён возможностью поймать движение через время и пространство в одну единственную фотографию.

In our relative condition we cannot understand what beyond time and space means.

В относительном состоянии мы не можем понять, что означает «за пределами времени и пространства».

These conversations require time and space.

Matter, motion, time and space are inseparable.

That needs its own time and space.

They need time and space to follow their own direction.

Really, I’d move anything fish-related that time and space allows.

Giving him time and space is okay.

Heaven is a spiritual place outside of time and space.

Ничего не найдено для этого значения.

Предложения, которые содержат time and space

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I need a single word which means «not bound by time or space»

Words such as «timeless,» «eternal,» «atemporal,» «,forever,» or «incorporal» either means «not bound by time» or «not bound by space» but I need a word means both.

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Here is what I am writing:

Either way, regardless of how powerful we, humans, become or how technologically advanced we will be, or how much knowledge we will accumulate, the concern which will forever haunt humanity is still the same: how will we, humans, put our power to use? We could even invent the time machine today. We could discover the secret to teleportation today. We could all move to Mars today. We could produce a weapon that is even more destructive than a nuclear bomb today. And none of that would answer how humans ought to put these great tools to use. Here, the more powerful humans become the more we are prone to causing our own destruction. Power is something which none of us should take likely. The question of how we ought to use our power is a crucial question which humanity must answer and must answer correctly. Regardless of how powerful or powerless we are, regardless of what context we might find ourselves in—from talking to our loved ones all the way to making a decision that could affect millions, regardless of whether it would be right at this very moment or ten thousand years from now, there is just not a time nor space which this question isn’t relevant.

The purpose of my research aims to solve and answer this [A WORD WHICH MEANS NOT BOUND BY TIME OR SPACE HERE] question.

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PLEASE DO NOT GET INTO A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSION. I JUST WANT SUGGESTION OF POSSIBLE WORDS + EXPLANATION. THANK YOU.

Asked by: Eryn Purdy

Score: 4.4/5
(73 votes)

Thus, space and time are effectively interchangeable, and fundamentally the same thing (or at least two different sides of the same coin), an effect which becomes much more noticeable at relativistic speeds approaching the speed of light.

What is the difference between space and time?

One can say that the only difference between these two is their functionality. Space offers the ‘room’ for matter to exist and move in, and time offers the facility of keeping track of what matter is doing and in which order.

How are space and time related?

Einstein, however, introduced the concept of a fourth dimension — time — that meant that space and time were inextricably linked. The general theory of relativity suggests that space-time expands and contracts depending on the momentum and mass of nearby matter.

Can space and time exist separately?

In the context of special relativity, time cannot be separated from the three dimensions of space, because the observed rate at which time passes for an object depends on the object’s velocity relative to the observer. … Space time is thus four dimensional.

Why is time the same as space?

The famous physicist Albert Einstein helped develop the idea of space-time as part of his theory of relativity. … That’s because space and time are relative — they depend on an observer’s speed. But the speed of light is more fundamental than either.

30 related questions found

To establish the deep (meaningful) differences between artistic and non-artistic text, you can refer to the presentation of such categories as time and space. The specificity here is obvious; it is not without reason that there are relevant terms in philology: artistic time and artistic space [1].

It is known that the feeling of time for a person in different periods of his life is subjective: it can stretch or shrink. Such subjectivity of sensations is used differently by the authors of artistic texts: an instant can last a long time or even completely stop, and large time periods can be flashed overnight. Artistic time is a sequence in describing events that are subjectively perceived. This perception of time becomes one of the forms of the image of reality, when the temporal perspective changes according to the will of the author. And the time perspective may shift, the past is thought of as the present, and the future may appear as the past, etc.

For example, in K. Simonov’s poem “Wait for Me” [2] subjective shifts in time are used: the feeling of expectation is transferred to the plan of the past. The beginning of the poem is built as a repeated appeal calling for waiting ( wait for me, and I will return, just wait. Wait when …). This “wait, when” and simply “wait” is repeated ten times. Thus, the prospect of a future that is not yet accomplished is outlined. However, at the end of the poem, a statement of the event is given as accomplished:

Wait for me and I will come back

To all deaths out of spite.

Who did not expect me, let him

Says: «Lucky.»

Do not understand not waiting for them,

As in the middle of the fire

Waiting for your

You saved me.

How I survived will know

Only we are with you, —

You just knew how to wait

Like no one else.

So the prospect of the future was abruptly broken, and the theme “Wait and I will return” turned into an affirmation of the result of this expectation given in the past tense forms: lucky, saved, survived, knew how to wait. The use of the category of time, thus, turned into a certain compositional device, and the subjectivity in the presentation of the time plan was reflected in the fact that the expectation moved into the past. Such a shift makes it possible to feel confident in the outcome of events, the future, as it were, is predetermined, inevitable.

The category of time in the artistic text is also complicated by two-sidedness — this is the time of the narration and the time of the event. Therefore, time shifts are quite natural. Deleted events can be depicted as directly occurring, for example, in the retelling of a character. Temporary bifurcation [3] is a typical method of narration, in which the stories of various people, including the author of the text, intersect.

But such a split is possible without the intervention of the characters in the coverage of past and present events. For example, in “The Last Spring” by I. Bunin there is an episode-picture drawn by the author:

No, it’s spring.

Today drove again . And silent all the way — fog and spring nap. There is no sun, but there is already a lot of spring light behind the fog, and the fields are so white that it is difficult to watch. In the distance, curly lilac forests are barely drawn .

A small village in a yellow calf jacket with a gun crossed the village. Completely wild hunters. He looked at us, not bowing, and went straight through the snow, towards the line that was darkening in the hollow. The gun is short, with truncated trunks and a homemade lodge, painted with red lead. Behind indifferently runs a large male dog.

Even wormwood sticking out along the road, out of the snow, in hoarfrost; but spring, spring. Blissfully dozing, sitting on snowy dung heaps, scattered across the field, hawk, gently merge with snow and fog, with all this thick, soft and light white, than the happy pre-spring world is full of.

The narrator tells here about the past (albeit not far in time — now ) trip. However, imperceptibly, unobtrusively, the narrative is translated into a plan of the present. The picture-event of the past reappears before our eyes and seems to be frozen in stillness. Time stopped.

Space, as well as time, can be shifted by the author’s will. Art space is created through the use of the image angle; this occurs as a result of a mental change in the place from which the observation is being conducted: the general, small plan is replaced by a larger one, and vice versa.

If, for example, take a poem by M. Yu. Lermontov «Parus» and consider it in terms of spatial sensations, it turns out that the distant and close combined in one point: first, the sail is seen at a great distance, it is even weakly discernible due to fog (near the fog would not hurt).

White sail is lonely

In the mist of the sea blue! ..

(By the way, in the original version the remoteness of the observed object was directly stated: The sail is distant. )

Further, the plan is gradually enlarged, the author seems to be approaching the sail:

Waves play — the wind whistles,

And the mast bends and lurks …

In the foggy distance it would be difficult to discern the details of a sailboat, and even less to see how the mast bends, and to hear how it squeaks. And finally, at the end of the poem, we, together with the author, moved to the sailboat itself, otherwise we could not see what was under it and above it:

Beneath it is a stream of light azure,

Above him is a golden ray of sunshine …

This is how the image is noticeably enlarged and the image detailing is enhanced in this connection.

In a literary text, spatial concepts can generally be transformed into concepts of another kind. According to M. Yu. Lotman, artistic space — is a model of the world of this author, expressed in the language of his spatial representations.

Spatial concepts in a creative, artistic context can only be external, verbal, but convey a different content, not spatial. For example, for B. Pasternak, the “horizon” is both a temporary concept (future), and emotional-evaluative (happiness), and a mythological “way to heaven” (that is, to creativity). The horizon is the place where the earth converges with the sky, or the sky “descends” to the earth, then the poet is inspired, he feels creative delight. This means that this is not a real horizon as a spatial concept, but something else related to the state of the lyrical hero, and in this case it may shift and be very close:

In a thunderstorm purple eyes and lawns

And it smells like raw horizontally, —

it smells very close …

Space and time are the basic forms of being, life, just like such realities, they are recreated in non-artistic texts, in particular, in scientific ones, and in artistic texts they can be transformed, passing one into the other.

A. Voznesensky wrote:

What an asymmetrical time!

The last minutes are shorter

The last separation is longer.

And further:

Die — in space,

Live — in time.

The category of time has a peculiar form of expression not only in an artistic text. Non-fiction text is also notable for its “attitude” to time. Texts such as legislative, instructional, reference, focus on the «timeless» expression of thought. The verb forms of tense used here do not mean at all what they are meant to mean, in particular, the present tense forms convey the meaning of the constancy of a sign, characteristic or constancy of the action performed. Such meanings are abstracted from specific verb forms. There is no time at all here. So, for example, descriptive material is given in encyclopedias:

Jay The jay stands out in the “black family” of the corvidae by the beauty of the variegated plumage. This is a very intelligent, agile and noisy forest bird. When she sees a person or a predatory beast, she always makes a noise, and her loud cries of “gee-gee-gee” are heard in the forest. In open spaces, the jay flies slowly and hard. In the forest, she deftly flies from branch to branch, from tree to tree, tacking between them. On the ground moves by jumping <…>.

Singing jay well imitates the voices of other birds (especially predatory) and the most diverse sounds <…>.

Only during the nesting season the jays seem to disappear — their cries are not heard, birds are not seen flying or climbing everywhere. Jays fly at this time silently, hiding behind the branches, and quietly fly up to the nest.

After the departure of chicks, at the end of May — in June, the jays gather in small flocks and again noisily wander through the forest (Encyclopedia for Children. T. 2).

Instructional text type (for example, prescription, recommendation), is built entirely on the language stereotype, where the temporary values ​​are completely eliminated: Should proceed from …; Must be borne in mind …; You must specify on …; Recommended …; etc.

There is a peculiar use of verb forms of time and in a scientific text, for example: “An event is defined by the place where it occurred and the time when it occurred. It is often useful for reasons of clarity to use an imaginary four-dimensional space … In this space, an event is depicted as a full stop. These points are called world points ”(LD Landau, EM Lifshitz. Field Theory). The verb forms of the tense indicate in this text the meaning of constancy.

So, the artistic and non-artistic texts, although they are sequences of statements combined into interphrase unity and fragments, are fundamentally different in their nature — functionally, structurally, and communicatively. Even the semantic «behavior» of a word is different in artistic and non-artistic contexts. In non-artistic texts, the word is focused on the expression of the nominative-objective meaning and uniqueness, whereas the artistic text actualizes the hidden meanings of the word, creating a new vision of the world and its assessment, multiplicity, and meaningful extensions. The non-artistic text is oriented towards the reflection of reality strictly limited by the laws of logical causation, the artistic text as belonging to art is free from these limitations.

The artistic and non-artistic text is fundamentally different in its orientation towards different aspects of the reader’s personality, his emotional and intellectual structure. The artistic text primarily affects the emotional structure (of the soul), is associated with the reader’s personal sensations — hence expressiveness, emotiveness, mood for empathy; non-artistic text appeals more to the mind, the intellectual structure of the individual — hence the neutrality of expression and detachment from the personal-emotional beginning [4].

Philosophy of space and time is the branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology and epistemology of space and time. While such ideas have been central to philosophy from its inception, the philosophy of space and time was both an inspiration for and a central aspect of early analytic philosophy. The subject focuses on a number of basic issues, including whether time and space exist independently of the mind, whether they exist independently of one another, what accounts for time’s apparently unidirectional flow, whether times other than the present moment exist, and questions about the nature of identity (particularly the nature of identity over time).

Ancient and medieval views[edit]

The earliest recorded philosophy of time was expounded by the ancient Egyptian thinker Ptahhotep (c. 2650–2600 BC) who said:

Follow your desire as long as you live, and do not perform more than is ordered, do not lessen the time of the following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit…

— 11th maxim of Ptahhotep ^[1]

The Vedas, the earliest texts on Indian philosophy and Hindu philosophy, dating back to the late 2nd millennium BC, describe ancient Hindu cosmology, in which the universe goes through repeated cycles of creation, destruction, and rebirth, with each cycle lasting 4,320,000 years.^[2] Ancient Greek philosophers, including Parmenides and Heraclitus, wrote essays on the nature of time.^[3]

Incas regarded space and time as a single concept, named pacha (Quechua: pacha, Aymara: pacha).^[4][5][6]

Plato, in the Timaeus, identified time with the period of motion of the heavenly bodies, and space as that in which things come to be. Aristotle, in Book IV of his Physics, defined time as the number of changes with respect to before and after, and the place of an object as the innermost motionless boundary of that which surrounds it.

In Book 11 of St. Augustine’s Confessions, he reflects on the nature of time, asking, «What then is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I know not.» He goes on to comment on the difficulty of thinking about time, pointing out the inaccuracy of common speech: «For but few things are there of which we speak properly; of most things we speak improperly, still, the things intended are understood.»^[7] But Augustine presented the first philosophical argument for the reality of Creation (against Aristotle) in the context of his discussion of time, saying that knowledge of time depends on the knowledge of the movement of things, and therefore time cannot be where there are no creatures to measure its passing (Confessions Book XI ¶30; City of God Book XI ch.6).

In contrast to ancient Greek philosophers who believed that the universe had an infinite past with no beginning, medieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning, now known as temporal finitism. The Christian philosopher John Philoponus presented early arguments, adopted by later Christian philosophers and theologians of the form «argument from the impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite», which states:^[8]

«An actual infinite cannot exist.»

«An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite.»

«∴ An infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist.»

In the early 11th century, the Muslim physicist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen or Alhazen) discussed space perception and its epistemological implications in his Book of Optics (1021). He also rejected Aristotle’s definition of topos (Physics IV) by way of geometric demonstrations and defined place as a mathematical spatial extension.^[9] His experimental proof of the intro-mission model of vision led to changes in the understanding of the visual perception of space, contrary to the previous emission theory of vision supported by Euclid and Ptolemy. In «tying the visual perception of space to prior bodily experience, Alhacen unequivocally rejected the intuitiveness of spatial perception and, therefore, the autonomy of vision. Without tangible notions of distance and size for correlation, sight can tell us next to nothing about such things.»^[10]

Realism and anti-realism[edit]

A traditional realist position in ontology is that time and space have existence apart from the human mind. Idealists, by contrast, deny or doubt the existence of objects independent of the mind. Some anti-realists, whose ontological position is that objects outside the mind do exist, nevertheless doubt the independent existence of time and space.

In 1781, Immanuel Kant published the Critique of Pure Reason, one of the most influential works in the history of the philosophy of space and time. He describes time as an a priori notion that, together with other a priori notions such as space, allows us to comprehend sense experience. Kant holds that neither space nor time are substance, entities in themselves, or learned by experience; he holds, rather, that both are elements of a systematic framework we use to structure our experience. Spatial measurements are used to quantify how far apart objects are, and temporal measurements are used to quantitatively compare the interval between (or duration of) events. Although space and time are held to be transcendentally ideal in this sense — that is, mind-dependent — they are also empirically real — that is, according to Kant’s definitions, a priori features of experience, and therefore not simply «subjective,» variable, or accidental perceptions in a given consciousness.^[11]

Some idealist writers, such as J. M. E. McTaggart in The Unreality of Time, have argued that time is an illusion (see also The flow of time, below).

The writers discussed here are for the most part realists in this regard; for instance, Gottfried Leibniz held that his monads existed, at least independently of the mind of the observer.

Absolutism and relationalism[edit]

Leibniz and Newton[edit]

The great debate between defining notions of space and time as real objects themselves (absolute), or mere orderings upon actual objects (relational), began between physicists Isaac Newton (via his spokesman, Samuel Clarke) and Gottfried Leibniz in the papers of the Leibniz–Clarke correspondence.

Arguing against the absolutist position, Leibniz offers a number of thought experiments with the purpose of showing that there is contradiction in assuming the existence of facts such as absolute location and velocity. These arguments trade heavily on two principles central to his philosophy: the principle of sufficient reason and the identity of indiscernibles. The principle of sufficient reason holds that for every fact, there is a reason that is sufficient to explain what and why it is the way it is and not otherwise. The identity of indiscernibles states that if there is no way of telling two entities apart, then they are one and the same thing.

The example Leibniz uses involves two proposed universes situated in absolute space. The only discernible difference between them is that the latter is positioned five feet to the left of the first. The example is only possible if such a thing as absolute space exists. Such a situation, however, is not possible, according to Leibniz, for if it were, a universe’s position in absolute space would have no sufficient reason, as it might very well have been anywhere else. Therefore, it contradicts the principle of sufficient reason, and there could exist two distinct universes that were in all ways indiscernible, thus contradicting the identity of indiscernibles.

Standing out in Clarke’s (and Newton’s) response to Leibniz’s arguments is the bucket argument: Water in a bucket, hung from a rope and set to spin, will start with a flat surface. As the water begins to spin in the bucket, the surface of the water will become concave. If the bucket is stopped, the water will continue to spin, and while the spin continues, the surface will remain concave. The concave surface is apparently not the result of the interaction of the bucket and the water, since the surface is flat when the bucket first starts to spin, it becomes concave as the water starts to spin, and it remains concave as the bucket stops.

In this response, Clarke argues for the necessity of the existence of absolute space to account for phenomena like rotation and acceleration that cannot be accounted for on a purely relationalist account. Clarke argues that since the curvature of the water occurs in the rotating bucket as well as in the stationary bucket containing spinning water, it can only be explained by stating that the water is rotating in relation to the presence of some third thing—absolute space.

Leibniz describes a space that exists only as a relation between objects, and which has no existence apart from the existence of those objects. Motion exists only as a relation between those objects. Newtonian space provided the absolute frame of reference within which objects can have motion. In Newton’s system, the frame of reference exists independently of the objects contained within it. These objects can be described as moving in relation to space itself. For almost two centuries, the evidence of a concave water surface held authority.

Mach[edit]

Another important figure in this debate is 19th-century physicist Ernst Mach. While he did not deny the existence of phenomena like that seen in the bucket argument, he still denied the absolutist conclusion by offering a different answer as to what the bucket was rotating in relation to: the fixed stars.

Mach suggested that thought experiments like the bucket argument are problematic. If we were to imagine a universe that only contains a bucket, on Newton’s account, this bucket could be set to spin relative to absolute space, and the water it contained would form the characteristic concave surface. But in the absence of anything else in the universe, it would be difficult to confirm that the bucket was indeed spinning. It seems equally possible that the surface of the water in the bucket would remain flat.

Mach argued that, in effect, the water experiment in an otherwise empty universe would remain flat. But if another object were introduced into this universe, perhaps a distant star, there would now be something relative to which the bucket could be seen as rotating. The water inside the bucket could possibly have a slight curve. To account for the curve that we observe, an increase in the number of objects in the universe also increases the curvature in the water. Mach argued that the momentum of an object, whether angular or linear, exists as a result of the sum of the effects of other objects in the universe (Mach’s Principle).

Einstein[edit]

Albert Einstein proposed that the laws of physics should be based on the principle of relativity. This principle holds that the rules of physics must be the same for all observers, regardless of the frame of reference that is used, and that light propagates at the same speed in all reference frames. This theory was motivated by Maxwell’s equations, which show that electromagnetic waves propagate in a vacuum at the speed of light. However, Maxwell’s equations give no indication of what this speed is relative to. Prior to Einstein, it was thought that this speed was relative to a fixed medium, called the luminiferous ether. In contrast, the theory of special relativity postulates that light propagates at the speed of light in all inertial frames, and examines the implications of this postulate.

All attempts to measure any speed relative to this ether failed, which can be seen as a confirmation of Einstein’s postulate that light propagates at the same speed in all reference frames. Special relativity is a formalization of the principle of relativity that does not contain a privileged inertial frame of reference, such as the luminiferous ether or absolute space, from which Einstein inferred that no such frame exists.

Einstein generalized relativity to frames of reference that were non-inertial. He achieved this by positing the Equivalence Principle, which states that the force felt by an observer in a given gravitational field and that felt by an observer in an accelerating frame of reference are indistinguishable. This led to the conclusion that the mass of an object warps the geometry of the space-time surrounding it, as described in Einstein’s field equations.

In classical physics, an inertial reference frame is one in which an object that experiences no forces does not accelerate. In general relativity, an inertial frame of reference is one that is following a geodesic of space-time. An object that moves against a geodesic experiences a force. An object in free fall does not experience a force, because it is following a geodesic. An object standing on the earth, however, will experience a force, as it is being held against the geodesic by the surface of the planet.

Einstein partially advocates Mach’s principle in that distant stars explain inertia because they provide the gravitational field against which acceleration and inertia occur. But contrary to Leibniz’s account, this warped space-time is as integral a part of an object as are its other defining characteristics, such as volume and mass. If one holds, contrary to idealist beliefs, that objects exist independently of the mind, it seems that relativistics commits one to also hold the idea that space and temporality have exactly the same type of independent existence.

Conventionalism[edit]

The position of conventionalism states that there is no fact of the matter as to the geometry of space and time, but that it is decided by convention. The first proponent of such a view, Henri Poincaré, reacting to the creation of the new non-Euclidean geometry, argued that which geometry applied to a space was decided by convention, since different geometries will describe a set of objects equally well, based on considerations from his sphere-world.

This view was developed and updated to include considerations from relativistic physics by Hans Reichenbach. Reichenbach’s conventionalism, applying to space and time, focuses around the idea of coordinative definition.

Coordinative definition has two major features. The first has to do with coordinating units of length with certain physical objects. This is motivated by the fact that we can never directly apprehend length. Instead we must choose some physical object, say the Standard Metre at the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (International Bureau of Weights and Measures), or the wavelength of cadmium to stand in as our unit of length. The second feature deals with separated objects. Although we can, presumably, directly test the equality of length of two measuring rods when they are next to one another, we can not find out as much for two rods distant from one another. Even supposing that two rods, whenever brought near to one another are seen to be equal in length, we are not justified in stating that they are always equal in length. This impossibility undermines our ability to decide the equality of length of two distant objects. Sameness of length, to the contrary, must be set by definition.

Such a use of coordinative definition is in effect, on Reichenbach’s conventionalism, in the General Theory of Relativity where light is assumed, i.e. not discovered, to mark out equal distances in equal times. After this setting of coordinative definition, however, the geometry of spacetime is set.

As in the absolutism/relationalism debate, contemporary philosophy is still in disagreement as to the correctness of the conventionalist doctrine.

Structure of space-time[edit]

Building from a mix of insights from the historical debates of absolutism and conventionalism as well as reflecting on the import of the technical apparatus of the General Theory of Relativity, details as to the structure of space-time have made up a large proportion of discussion within the philosophy of space and time, as well as the philosophy of physics. The following is a short list of topics.

Relativity of simultaneity[edit]

According to special relativity each point in the universe can have a different set of events that compose its present instant. This has been used in the Rietdijk–Putnam argument to demonstrate that relativity predicts a block universe in which events are fixed in four dimensions.^{[citation needed][further explanation needed]}

Invariance vs. covariance[edit]

Bringing to bear the lessons of the absolutism/relationalism debate with the powerful mathematical tools invented in the 19th and 20th century, Michael Friedman draws a distinction between invariance upon mathematical transformation and covariance upon transformation.

Invariance, or symmetry, applies to objects, i.e. the symmetry group of a space-time theory designates what features of objects are invariant, or absolute, and which are dynamical, or variable.

Covariance applies to formulations of theories, i.e. the covariance group designates in which range of coordinate systems the laws of physics hold.

This distinction can be illustrated by revisiting Leibniz’s thought experiment, in which the universe is shifted over five feet. In this example the position of an object is seen not to be a property of that object, i.e. location is not invariant. Similarly, the covariance group for classical mechanics will be any coordinate systems that are obtained from one another by shifts in position as well as other translations allowed by a Galilean transformation.

In the classical case, the invariance, or symmetry, group and the covariance group coincide, but they part ways in relativistic physics. The symmetry group of the general theory of relativity includes all differentiable transformations, i.e., all properties of an object are dynamical, in other words there are no absolute objects. The formulations of the general theory of relativity, unlike those of classical mechanics, do not share a standard, i.e., there is no single formulation paired with transformations. As such the covariance group of the general theory of relativity is just the covariance group of every theory.

Historical frameworks[edit]

A further application of the modern mathematical methods, in league with the idea of invariance and covariance groups, is to try to interpret historical views of space and time in modern, mathematical language.

In these translations, a theory of space and time is seen as a manifold paired with vector spaces, the more vector spaces the more facts there are about objects in that theory. The historical development of spacetime theories is generally seen to start from a position where many facts about objects are incorporated in that theory, and as history progresses, more and more structure is removed.

For example, Aristotelian space and time has both absolute position and special places, such as the center of the cosmos, and the circumference. Newtonian space and time has absolute position and is Galilean invariant, but does not have special positions.

Holes[edit]

With the general theory of relativity, the traditional debate between absolutism and relationalism has been shifted to whether spacetime is a substance, since the general theory of relativity largely rules out the existence of, e.g., absolute positions. One powerful argument against spacetime substantivalism, offered by John Earman is known as the «hole argument».

This is a technical mathematical argument but can be paraphrased as follows:

Define a function d as the identity function over all elements over the manifold M, excepting a small neighbourhood H belonging to M. Over H d comes to differ from identity by a smooth function.

With use of this function d we can construct two mathematical models, where the second is generated by applying d to proper elements of the first, such that the two models are identical prior to the time t=0, where t is a time function created by a foliation of spacetime, but differ after t=0.

These considerations show that, since substantivalism allows the construction of holes, that the universe must, on that view, be indeterministic. Which, Earman argues, is a case against substantivalism, as the case between determinism or indeterminism should be a question of physics, not of our commitment to substantivalism.

Direction of time[edit]

The problem of the direction of time arises directly from two contradictory facts. Firstly, the fundamental physical laws are time-reversal invariant; if a cinematographic film were taken of any process describable by means of the aforementioned laws and then played backwards, it would still portray a physically possible process. Secondly, our experience of time, at the macroscopic level, is not time-reversal invariant.^[12] Glasses can fall and break, but shards of glass cannot reassemble and fly up onto tables. We have memories of the past, and none of the future. We feel we can’t change the past but can influence the future.

Causation solution[edit]

One solution to this problem takes a metaphysical view, in which the direction of time follows from an asymmetry of causation. We know more about the past because the elements of the past are causes for the effect that is our perception. We feel we can’t affect the past and can affect the future because we can’t affect the past and can affect the future.

There are two main objections to this view. First is the problem of distinguishing the cause from the effect in a non-arbitrary way. The use of causation in constructing a temporal ordering could easily become circular. The second problem with this view is its explanatory power. While the causation account, if successful, may account for some time-asymmetric phenomena like perception and action, it does not account for many others.

However, asymmetry of causation can be observed in a non-arbitrary way which is not metaphysical in the case of a human hand dropping a cup of water which smashes into fragments on a hard floor, spilling the liquid. In this order, the causes of the resultant pattern of cup fragments and water spill is easily attributable in terms of the trajectory of the cup, irregularities in its structure, angle of its impact on the floor, etc. However, applying the same event in reverse, it is difficult to explain why the various pieces of the cup should fly up into the human hand and reassemble precisely into the shape of a cup, or why the water should position itself entirely within the cup. The causes of the resultant structure and shape of the cup and the encapsulation of the water by the hand within the cup are not easily attributable, as neither hand nor floor can achieve such formations of the cup or water. This asymmetry is perceivable on account of two features: i) the relationship between the agent capacities of the human hand (i.e., what it is and is not capable of and what it is for) and non-animal agency (i.e., what floors are and are not capable of and what they are for) and ii) that the pieces of cup came to possess exactly the nature and number of those of a cup before assembling. In short, such asymmetry is attributable to the relationship between i) temporal direction and ii) the implications of form and functional capacity.

The application of these ideas of form and functional capacity only dictates temporal direction in relation to complex scenarios involving specific, non-metaphysical agency which is not merely dependent on human perception of time. However, this last observation in itself is not sufficient to invalidate the implications of the example for the progressive nature of time in general.

Thermodynamics solution[edit]

The second major family of solutions to this problem, and by far the one that has generated the most literature, finds the existence of the direction of time as relating to the nature of thermodynamics.

The answer from classical thermodynamics states that while our basic physical theory is, in fact, time-reversal symmetric, thermodynamics is not. In particular, the second law of thermodynamics states that the net entropy of a closed system never decreases, and this explains why we often see glass breaking, but not coming back together.

But in statistical mechanics things become more complicated. On one hand, statistical mechanics is far superior to classical thermodynamics, in that thermodynamic behavior, such as glass breaking, can be explained by the fundamental laws of physics paired with a statistical postulate. But statistical mechanics, unlike classical thermodynamics, is time-reversal symmetric. The second law of thermodynamics, as it arises in statistical mechanics, merely states that it is overwhelmingly likely that net entropy will increase, but it is not an absolute law.

Current thermodynamic solutions to the problem of the direction of time aim to find some further fact, or feature of the laws of nature to account for this discrepancy.

Laws solution[edit]

A third type of solution to the problem of the direction of time, although much less represented, argues that the laws are not time-reversal symmetric. For example, certain processes in quantum mechanics, relating to the weak nuclear force, are not time-reversible, keeping in mind that when dealing with quantum mechanics time-reversibility comprises a more complex definition. But this type of solution is insufficient because 1) the time-asymmetric phenomena in quantum mechanics are too few to account for the uniformity of macroscopic time-asymmetry and 2) it relies on the assumption that quantum mechanics is the final or correct description of physical processes.^{[citation needed]}

One recent proponent of the laws solution is Tim Maudlin who argues that the fundamental laws of physics are laws of temporal evolution (see Maudlin [2007]). However, elsewhere Maudlin argues: «[the] passage of time is an intrinsic asymmetry in the temporal structure of the world… It is the asymmetry that grounds the distinction between sequences that runs from past to future and sequences which run from future to past» [ibid, 2010 edition, p. 108]. Thus it is arguably difficult to assess whether Maudlin is suggesting that the direction of time is a consequence of the laws or is itself primitive.

Flow of time[edit]

The problem of the flow of time, as it has been treated in analytic philosophy, owes its beginning to a paper written by J. M. E. McTaggart, in which he proposes two «temporal series». The first series, which means to account for our intuitions about temporal becoming, or the moving Now, is called the A-series. The A-series orders events according to their being in the past, present or future, simpliciter and in comparison to each other. The B-series eliminates all reference to the present, and the associated temporal modalities of past and future, and orders all events by the temporal relations earlier than and later than. In many ways, the debate between proponents of these two views can be seen as a continuation of the early modern debate between the view that there is absolute time (defended by Isaac Newton) and the view that there is only merely relative time (defended by Gottfried Leibniz).

McTaggart, in his paper «The Unreality of Time», argues that time is unreal since a) the A-series is inconsistent and b) the B-series alone cannot account for the nature of time as the A-series describes an essential feature of it.

Building from this framework, two camps of solution have been offered. The first, the A-theorist solution, takes becoming as the central feature of time, and tries to construct the B-series from the A-series by offering an account of how B-facts come to be out of A-facts. The second camp, the B-theorist solution, takes as decisive McTaggart’s arguments against the A-series and tries to construct the A-series out of the B-series, for example, by temporal indexicals.

Dualities[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2016)

Quantum field theory models have shown that it is possible for theories in two different space-time backgrounds, like AdS/CFT or T-duality, to be equivalent.

Presentism and eternalism[edit]

According to Presentism, time is an ordering of various realities. At a certain time, some things exist and others do not. This is the only reality we can deal with and we cannot, for example, say that Homer exists because at the present time he does not. An Eternalist, on the other hand, holds that time is a dimension of reality on a par with the three spatial dimensions, and hence that all things—past, present and future—can be said to be just as real as things in the present. According to this theory, then, Homer really does exist, though we must still use special language when talking about somebody who exists at a distant time—just as we would use special language when talking about something far away (the very words near, far, above, below, and such are directly comparable to phrases such as in the past, a minute ago, and so on).

Endurantism and perdurantism[edit]

The positions on the persistence of objects are somewhat similar. An endurantist holds that for an object to persist through time is for it to exist completely at different times (each instance of existence we can regard as somehow separate from previous and future instances, though still numerically identical with them). A perdurantist on the other hand holds that for a thing to exist through time is for it to exist as a continuous reality, and that when we consider the thing as a whole we must consider an aggregate of all its «temporal parts» or instances of existing. Endurantism is seen as the conventional view and flows out of our pre-philosophical ideas (when I talk to somebody I think I am talking to that person as a complete object, and not just a part of a cross-temporal being), but perdurantists such as David Lewis have attacked this position. They argue that perdurantism is the superior view for its ability to take account of change in objects.

On the whole, Presentists are also endurantists and Eternalists are also perdurantists (and vice versa), but this is not a necessary relation and it is possible to claim, for instance, that time’s passage indicates a series of ordered realities, but that objects within these realities somehow exist outside of the reality as a whole, even though the realities as wholes are not related. However, such positions are rarely adopted.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
  • «Time» by Ned Markosian;
  • «Being and Becoming in Modern Physics» by Steven Savitt;
  • «Absolute and Relational Theories of Space and Motion» by Nick Huggett and Carl Hoefer.
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
  • «Time» by Bradley Dowden.
  • «Persistence in Time» by Damiano Costa.
• Brown, C.L., 2006, «What is Space?» A largely Wittgensteinian approach towards a dissolution of the question: «What is space?»
• Rea, M. C., «Four Dimensionalism» in The Oxford Handbook for Metaphysics. Oxford Univ. Press. Describes presentism and four-dimensionalism.
• CEITT — Time and Temporality Research Center. «Time and Temporality».
• https://web.archive.org/web/20110710211328/http://www.exactspent.com/philosophy_of_space_and_time.htm and related subjects
• «Gods and the Universe in Buddhist Perspective, Essays on Buddhist Cosmology» by Francis Story.
• Mark P. de Munnynck (1913). «Space» . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.