Is Time Real?: Time and Human Consciousness
Even if the external world does not seem to require the passage of time, human consciousness does. It is a tool that evolution appears to have given humans in order for them to deal successfully with the world. But is it all just illusion? Like St. ...
Is Time Real?: Would Newton and Einstein Have Agreed?
Not everyone agrees that relativity dismisses absolute time and therefore Newton's theories are accurate as far as they go. The way we measure time, however, has certainly been affected by 20th century physics, as in the so-called twins effect. Cont...
Is Time Real?: Time as an Inner Sense
Immanuel Kant considers time a human creation. Like space, it is an inner sense our minds use to organize our experiences and structure reality. But if there really isn't any time, what is it? As Augustine said, "if I want to explain it to someone w...
Is Time Real?: Origins and Functions of Time
In 1870 the world does not have standard time. Each county, each city, sometimes each village keeps its own time. In 1884, representatives from around the world meet in Washington D.C. to establish a common standard for time, the time zones that are...
Is Time Real?: Contrasting Perspectives on Time
J.M.E. McTaggart considered time unreal. "Past, present, and future," he said," are incompatible determinations.... No event can be more than one." Does the present enjoy privileged status in terms of its reality, or is it a subjective illusion of h...
Is Time Real?: Scientific Theories of Time: Albert Einstein
In his first theory of relativity developed in 1905 Einstein came up with the idea that both space and time are relative to the state of motion of the observer. Time is not as absolute and universal as we thought;it can be changed by motion. Each ob...
Is Time Real?: Scientific Theories of Time: Isaac Newton
Until the 20th century the dominant view of time was embedded in the mechanics of Isaac Newton. Newton viewed absolute time as an endless line stretching from the infinite past to the infinite future. Events happen according to whatever standard of ...
Is Time Real?: Paradox of Time
Aristotle formulated one of the basic paradoxes of time. "Time, whether limitless or any given length, is made up of the no-longer and the not-yet. How can we conceive of that which is composed of non-existents?
What is the Meaning of Life?: What is the Meaning of Life?
Is there a Divine Plan that can give purpose and meaning to our lives? Hegel and Mark argued that meaning for individual lives comes from contributing to the progress of history, the arena in which humans come to the full realization of reason and f...