Is Reason the Source of Knowledge?: Theory of Innate Ideas, The
Rationalists believe in innate ideas, ideas that are present in the mind from birth. The concept had a long history beginning with Plato in the 4th century B.C.E. The difficulties and discoveries characteristic of Athens..
Is There One Truth?
Philosopher Richard Rorty argues that the notion of there being one truth is "...a bad left-over of Greek metaphysics and Christian theology." Professor Rorty says that there are "lots of descriptions of the universe," a..
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 ..
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 ..
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?
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 ..
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 accor..
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..
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 wa..
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..