What is the nature of time?

Answer 1

It's like everything else, it evolves......:)

Answer 2

Without the observer no time exists. Further - the observer changes the concept/nature of time merely by trying to analyze. It follows that time can and will be manipulated. All three aspects of time - past, present and future are present simultaneously. It is the inhibited, limited mind (usually the brainwashed one which never questions anything) that can reside only in the present.

Consider finding yourself on a plain.... the immediate circle/area of views to the horizon represents the present. Then you board a helicopter and find yourself 10000 feet high up. What used to be the boundary of perception first now has become enlarged significantly and has become a new reality...... encompassing what was previously the past and future. Then one can fly even higher and higher...... The flight, its abilities and possibilities of the mind are truly marvelous.

Answer 3

Time is composed of 3 things. 1. Past, 2. Present, 3. Future.
This reflects its Divine Creator God's Tri-unity of 1. Father, 2. Son, 3. Holy Spirit.
Like the universe nature which are 1. Time, 2. Space, 3. Matter. And yet "Space" nature also is made up of 1. Length,
2. Breath, 3. Height as "Matter" is 1. Solid (energy), 2. Liquid (motion), 3. Gaseous (phenomena) etc......

Answer 4

Here is my theory on time, which I am sure some prominent
theorists would argue.
Time is objective and perception is subjective.
Time is a convenient natural dimension because time is the
one subject that all perceptions must have an equal
opportunity to perceive. How is time perceived. Time is
perceived as it reflects a change in matter in space. It would
appear as if time ceased to exist if a change in space wasn't
perceived. Simply because an individual closes their eyes or
ignores the change of matter does not mean that time
ceases to pass. It means that the passage isn't measured.


Comments on Psyengine's answer:

"Thought in this way time is not an immediate natural perception but a mediated natural perception, but the spirit in relation to need produces a self consciousness in action in the absence of abstract notions for time."

I agree that time is perceived through
intermediate matter. I do not agree that
it is impossible for the properties of
matter to change, although I do believe
that reason for change is perceivable
I don't believe that it is definitely perceived,
so how can a constant for time exist.


"This self consciousness persists in the transformation to abstract time accommodation."

I agree that the concept of time must be
intrinsically abstract because it must
be observed vicariously through
the change of matter.

Answer 5

To get a more direct glimpse of time, take a look around you at the world as it's happening and imagine the same scene that's around you, but without all the objects (including the air & yourself). Also take away any energy that might be present. That's pure, unadulterated time, but there's no known way to measure it without the objects present so their motion can be seen and measured. In fact, nobody knows for sure if time could even exist in a total absence of matter or energy (even empty space has energy, so I'm not just talking about a vacuum).

Answer 6

Time is a blanket over the human mind. Truly, if you really thought about, if we had no time, I truly believe that there would mutual peace throughout the world. People wouldn't be so ready to fight or argue because they wouldn't have "time" to do it. I often think about I my sleep would be if I didn't have time. Would I feel tired when woke up, I wouldn't know how many hours I had slept, so how I would be able to tell. There is a vast amount of answers.

Answer 7

There are three main theories.
However, they are too complicated to explain on this sad little forum.
(Linear, circular, simultaneous, etc)
Therefore, let me answer your question with another question:
What is the nature of nature? O_o

Answer 8

Time is a mechanistic relation for the parts that constitute existence in action in its totality, but we use a finite portion of them, the sun, moon and the motion in the earth its self to identify their arithmetic constants using measure for distance and a mechanism for time relations, i.e. velocity. The perception for time is a mediated cognitive process that may habituate the subconscious transforming mind from a relation to pure biological need to complex bio-extended functions, i.e. abstract thought. Thought in this way time is not an immediate natural perception but a mediated natural perception, but the spirit in relation to need produces a self consciousness in action in the absence of abstract notions for time. This self consciousness persists in the transformation to abstract time accommodation.

For reading for mechanism concept and various contexts for its concepts utility., see the following link:

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/li_terms.htm

For sample see the following:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/hl/hl716.htm


Hegel’s Science of Logic

The Mechanical Process
(a) The Formal Mechanical Process
§ 1553

The mechanical process is the positing of what is contained in the Notion of mechanism, and therefore, in the first instance, of a contradiction.

1. It follows from the Notion just indicated that the interaction of objects takes the form of the positing of the identical relation of the objects. This consists merely in giving to the determinateness that is determined, the form of universality; this is communication, which does not involve transition into an opposite. Spiritual communication, which moreover takes place in that element which is the universal in the form of universality, is explicitly an ideal relation in which a determinateness continues itself from one person into another unimpaired, and universalises itself without any alteration whatever-as a scent freely spreads in the unresisting atmosphere. But even in communication between material objects, their determinateness spreads, so to speak, in a similarly ideal manner; personality is an infinitely more intense impenetrability [Harte] than objects possess. The formal totality of the object in general, which is indifferent to the determinateness and hence is not a self-determination, makes it undistinguished from the other object and thus renders the interaction primarily an unimpeded continuation of the determinateness of the one in the other.


http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/hl/hl716.htm

Answer 9

Hmm..how about a simple and simultaneous Past, Present, and Future.

Answer 10

Time keeps on slipping into the future.

Answer 11

well for starters...it is so 'vast' like the universe and before like the universe and after....we can dissect sections of it but cannot comprehend it's beginning or end.

it is infinitely interconnected loopy and complex....not a linear thing.....


it is a personality trait of God....=)