The naturalness of time.

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Reply Tue 2 Mar, 2010 05:32 am
PREMISE 1: Time is infinitely divisible.

PREMISE 2: No artificial, unnatural quantity is infinitely divisible.

CONCLUSION: No time is an artificial, unnatural quantity.



In examples of artificial, unnatural quantities like weight, density, temperature and velocity, their infinite division is meaningless.
 
sometime sun
 
Reply Wed 3 Mar, 2010 05:41 pm
@diamantis,
diamantis;134535 wrote:
PREMISE 1: Time is infinitely divisible.

PREMISE 2: No artificial, unnatural quantity is infinitely divisible.

CONCLUSION: No time is an artificial, unnatural quantity.



In examples of artificial, unnatural quantities like weight, density, temperature and velocity, their infinite division is meaningless.

A clock is divisible, time is not, time is constant until it ends, even if it hick-ups it is not divisible.
But perhaps the devisiblity you speak of is that it once had a beginning and will have an ending, so yes divisible to a degree.
Time exists even after you die, hard to imagine but it probably does.
But perhaps time is God, the infinate never beginning because it cannot end.
Perhaps we are infinate, perhaps there is no such thing as an ending?
 
Ding an Sich
 
Reply Thu 4 Mar, 2010 11:14 am
@sometime sun,
I would agree with this syllogism not only in part of it's validity, but also it's subject matter. Time can indeed be divided into infinite parts; but would you also agree that there is one time? That this time (the one we divide) is merely a part of a unified time, or a universal time. But this all pertains to a discussion outside the argument presented.

I have some questions though regarding the words used (just for clarifications sake).

1. What do you mean by unnatural?

2. What do you mean by artificial?

and

3. Can the two be equivalent?

Other than that your syllogism is valid and I have no problems with the subject matter (aside from the aforementioned questions which are merely to clarify if we can). Thank you.
 
MMP2506
 
Reply Thu 4 Mar, 2010 11:39 am
@diamantis,
diamantis;134535 wrote:
PREMISE 1: Time is infinitely divisible.

PREMISE 2: No artificial, unnatural quantity is infinitely divisible.

CONCLUSION: No time is an artificial, unnatural quantity.



In examples of artificial, unnatural quantities like weight, density, temperature and velocity, their infinite division is meaningless.


Time is infinitely meaningful because it is the means by which we organize our memories. Without temporality, we would have no knowledge, as we would not be able to distinguish from past and present stimuli.

In a sense, everything is present perception, as "past stimuli" is merely the re-iteration of our memories in the present. Temporality is inherently natural and essential for consciousness to occur.
 
Reconstructo
 
Reply Thu 4 Mar, 2010 09:20 pm
@MMP2506,
MMP2506;135984 wrote:
Time is infinitely meaningful because it is the means by which we organize our memories. Without temporality, we would have no knowledge, as we would not be able to distinguish from past and present stimuli.

In a sense, everything is present perception, as "past stimuli" is merely the re-iteration of our memories in the present. Temporality is inherently natural and essential for consciousness to occur.


This is quite close to my opinion, but with an important twist. It is our concepts that engender time, and not the reverse. Memory and a desired future composed from memory. That is time. And motion is also just a concept, an inference from the spatial present in relation to memory. The only real time is the development of our concept system. (Hegel)
 
Chrisbx1
 
Reply Mon 8 Mar, 2010 09:15 pm
@diamantis,
In my opinion, always right now is our status. Time is only measured by how we perceive things. For example: birth, death, growth. ect..

Across the universe, still at this moment, it is the same time. It takes us a long time to get there. We call what we might perceive a long way, as time.
Smile

I think because we are moving though space is the reason for our perception of time... maybe
:shifty:

As far as time being infinite, I believe that all is infinite, all a fractal the biggest thing.
 
Reconstructo
 
Reply Mon 8 Mar, 2010 10:06 pm
@Chrisbx1,
Chrisbx1;137768 wrote:
In my opinion, always right now is our status. Time is only measured by how we perceive things. For example: birth, death, growth. ect..

Across the universe, still at this moment, it is the same time. It takes us a long time to get there. We call what we might perceive a long way, as time.
Smile

I think because we are moving though space is the reason for our perception of time... maybe
:shifty:

As far as time being infinite, I believe that all is infinite, all a fractal the biggest thing.


I generally agree. The past and future are made of concepts. Really, even the "present" is made of concepts, as long as we think of it as the "present."

It seems to me that "time" is the byproduct of concept and spatial being.
 
 

 
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