The ultimate nature of time?

Question

I've heard so many people say "Oh time is just an illusion, it doesn't really exist!" My opinion is that the question whether time exists independently of the human brain or not cannot be answered. In other words, I think it's impossible to say whether time is a property of the universe or a property of the human mind. What do y'all think?

Answer 1

I've been over this one in my head many times and took Phil 101 at uni this year. Time itself is a manmade concept that keep us in an orderly fashion and sometimes it is a mindspin that you can rely on a watch to let you know when exactly we should be somewhere. Timekeeping aside, there is definitely and orderly way to our earth anyway. We have brains that have develpoed to know that night is when you sleep and day is when you work. It has worked out quite well all round for the sake of order. I can't imagine living near one of the poles with their 24 hr light/darkness months but they seem to cope also. To sum up time (on a watch) I believe is a man made concept but there i definitely a reliable cycle that appears to be a property of the universe.

Answer 2

I think time as a property of the universe is there, but the span is to large for us to fully understand, (a thousand years ago it was like thus or so, but now it's not) since we are here for such a short span to consider the question. I also think our ideas of time (as we live it) is man's attempted to control it.(sort of like our attempts to understand a superior being). I have always found time to be mysterious: why does it appear to go faster when we are coming home than when we are going away, why does it take so much longer for a watched pot to boil, why does it seem time slows down when we are waiting, and go so apparently fast when we are doing?Why are we all in such a hurry, we often have to wait when we get there. Apparently all beyond my limited knowledge to internalize it.

Answer 3

Time is defined by change.

Change has to happen in the universe and has also got to be perceived in the mind for time to have any dimension. I would therefore say that time is a property of both the subject (mind) and the object (universe).

Answer 4

I disagree. I think that time is definately a property of the universe. The problem is this: Human beings perceive everything to be far different from it's actual state of being. For instance, i look at my fingernail and what do I see? A fingernail. What is it really? Just a collection of atoms. We see time as minutes and hours when really time is a lot like space. Like space, it's unavoidable, we must be in it and we must move through it. Think you can be still in space? Think again. Even when you sit still on your couch, the earth is moving and moving you with it. Even if the earth were still, galaxy is moving with the expansion of the universe and you are moving right along with it. Just as you cannot stop the universe from moving,you cannot stop yourself from moving through time. i think if you were to stop moving in space, you would stop moving in time. i think if you stopped time, you would be unable to move through space. That's because time is space and space is time. Even Einstein beleived this. He said that time and space could not be seperated and that they should be reffered to as spacetime. The reason that we see them as different things is the same reason that we see atoms and fingernails as different things= the human mind must alter it's perception of the universe to the point where it can functionally interact with it's environment. i hope this helps

Answer 5

Time is Known as "Kala" in Sanskrit. It is known as the eraser of visible world. it is the property of the universe and none has won it. every thing must ultimately consumed by Kala. whether man acknowledges or not time does its work without interruption.

Answer 6

Time is relative to the position of the observer.

An hour with a beautiful woman may feel like but a moment, but an hour in the dentist chair may take an eternity.

Answer 7

Time and space are connected. We look at the moving object creating space and in between we feel that is time. After the stop of moving object there will be no time. The sun is moving we can see is daytime. If it stop, do we have time again?

Answer 8

Everything exists for a finite length of time, therefore time must exist. It is only how you use and define time that causes confusion.

Answer 9

It is not the property of one or the other...it is the property of the MERGING of both. Only then is it FULLY realized.

Answer 10

What a debatable query! Very much suited to my interests. :) May comsume a big fraction of your 'time' to my 'timely' answer.

First things first. What my beloved fellow friends say holds itself true to the PERCEPTED time. We humans bear a copy of everything we see/hear/feel in our brain, and then we analyze over the data, in the required mannerism. We never have/ do/ will percept the vast expanse of universe in its crude form, for every such perception is subjected to thousands of factors at all the times (That is why philosophers, affected by less factors, are able to utilize their intellect better)

Human beings bear themselves confined to the rigid boundaries of their senses. We bear to our knowledge the sphere of our vision. What we see, we believe. Yet we go on FORWARD in time. Like a fluid. Space-Time-Continuum...In accordance to our perception at least...

In accordance to one of Einstein's theory, the time holds itself in a stretch of another dimension all together. We know so much of time, yet in reality we know N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Ask me why? The answer bears itself in utmost simplicity. We can only conclude on matters we are able perceive in correct mannerism. We do not bear such a sense organ nor are we able to implement over 4% of our brain, so as to perceive the concept of time in proper ideology. Therefore we cannot forge a concept concrete enough to bear the yoke of your question.

In other vivacious realizations, we punny mortals dont even have the ability to measure time in its proper state. The length/state of time is always subjected to our memory, which in turn is affected by our thoughts, which is proportionally affected by our personality, furthermore by the circumstances we are subjected to, ongoing to the mannerism of life functionality and all that goodness. (I can just go on and on to the last atom, but that is a bit too off to the topic)

What I am trying to say, is that you cant even correspond two events in the same -er- functionality of time. Fragments from your memory are erased, and this goes on and on and on...So you cant conclude anything in a justiciable form....

Yet we can ALWAYS speculate! In such speculations, we can come to many ways to understand time. Suppose time IS a fabric. A vast expanse of infinite non-molecular material. If we are to possess a way to make a cut in this fabric, we CAN gain access to two different periods in time.

Now here's the boomer. What if time repeats itself? Now stick to me while I take you to a psycho flight. Seatbelts on? Good.

So far we have considered time to be a concept in whose relation we all exist. Now imagine this. WHAT if time is relative to every individual? No-one has been able to explain the term 'life'. Maybe this is because life IS time? What we consider time is the fabruication of us mortals. What if time exists independently for everyone? When one perishes, he is actually going to REPEAT his so called 'life'. Perhaps he period from the Big Bang to the collapse of the universe has repeated itself millions of times already!

Now thats a speculation. No-one can state it correct or incorrect, for one does not bear such perception. Perhaps we are just the play-stuff of a larger colossal existence. Then again, what is existence?