Nature of Time
Whatever else may be said about time, one thing is known for certain. Time goes beyond mere definition. Time is a matter that consists all around us and is great importance in the world, however it cannot be expressed in terms of other such things. The New Edition of The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary tells us that time is "the indefinite continued progress of existence, events etc. In the past, present and future regarded as a whole. The progress of this as affecting persons or things (stood the test of time)" Of course what the dictionary's specialised vocabulary has said here is that time can be defined by measurement and measurement is a period during which something occurs. It has not really answered nor told us what time is.Indeed that very fact that time can be made an issue of reflection shows us that what the word time connotes, changes with the circumstances in which it is used. This situation alone would not constitute a problem, had we just accepted that the context in which the word time was present, defined the meaning in each case. But we do not do that, and that is were the question of "what is time?" arises. People seem to think that the word time referred to some independent dimension of nature, that co
If our universe was so constructed, it is conceivable that a person could in a sense jump forward or backward between frames using that mechanism favoured by science fiction. Indeed, each domain has its own unique time dynamics as it too has its own process dynamics. or even time, into explanatory principles. But as we have seen time goes far beyond explanation, and rather results in our own personal interpretation. We look forward to these, as a source of acceptance, of some sort of independent reality, seeking the ultimate references for all offered explanations. In our culture, as we ask the question what is time, we expect an answer with the form of a reference to some kind of independent entity, in the understanding that such a reference will give universal validity to our answer. For the true meaning of time, time as a question, is a never-ending chapter. This attitude permeates our manner of asking questions and our listening for answers. For changes in the configuration of a system occur in continuous fashion not in macroscopic jumps. To allow one to say such things, is a manner of explaining experience, in which we again find ourselves asking and seeking the explanation of living, of time. Living can be said to be a dynamic that disappears as it takes place. It is safe to say that we retain the sense of a continual forward progression in the matter of time. Therefore that which we connote with the word time, cannot be a thing itself.
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