Is time an abstract idea?

[coberst]

Is time an abstract idea?

Time, motion, and change are such basic philosophical concepts that we see them being considered by all philosophers throughout Western philosophical thinking. These are fundamental concepts about which philosophers theorize and they are fundamental concepts about which every DickandJane deal with constantly in their ever-day actions and thoughts.

All of these concepts are abstract ideas that are constructed of multiple metaphors resulting from literal ever-day experiences. Our society thinks of metaphors as being the venue of poets; however, metaphors are not arbitrary or culturally and historically specific. “Rather, they tend to be normal, conventional, relatively fixed and stable, non arbitrary, and widespread throughout the cultures, and languages of the world”

Most importantly we must recognize these metaphors as being abstract but also that they are grounded in specific experiences.

Philosophers have theorized as to whether time really is; is it bounded, is it continuous or divided, does it flow like a river, is time the same to everyone, and is it long or short. These are common questions for DickandJane but philosophy seems to discount most of these human quizzes as being irrelevant. Often philosophers point out paradoxes embodied within these questions.

We have a rich and diverse notion of what time is. Time is not a thing-in-itself that we conceptualize as being independent. “All of our understandings of time are relative to other concepts such as motion, space, and events …We define time by metonymy: successive iterations of a type of event stand for intervals of “time”.” Consequentially, the basic literal properties of our concept of time are consequences of properties of events: Time is directional, irreversible, segmentable, continuous, and measurable.

We do have an experience of time but that experience is always in conjunction with our real experiences of events. “It also means that our experience of time is dependent on our embodied conceptualization of time in terms of events…Experience does not always come prior to conceptualization, because conceptualization is itself embodied. Further, it means that our experience of time is grounded in other experiences, the experiences of events.”

It is virtually impossible for us to conceptualize time as a stand alone concept without metaphor. Physics defines motion, i.e. velocity, in terms of distance and time, thereby indicating motion is secondary to time and distance. However, metaphorically we appear to place time as dependent upon the primitive sense of motion. “There is an area of our visual system of our brain that is dedicated to the processing of motion.”

MOVING TIME METAPHOR

“There is a lone, stationary observer facing in a fixed direction. There is an indefinite long sequence of objects moving past the observer from front to back. The moving objects are conceptualized as having fronts in their direction of motion.”

The time has long past for that answer. The time has come. Time flies by. Summer is almost past. I can see the face of trouble. I cannot face the future. The following days will tell the story.

In this metaphor I conceptualize time as an object moving toward me. The times that are in front of me are conceptualized as the future and the times that have passed me are the past. The present time is that time that is now beside me. This is why we speak of the here and now. My position is a reference point, thus tomorrow is before me and yesterday is past me. I can see the future and the past is gone forever.

MOVING OBSERVER or TIME’S LANDSCAPE

The second major metaphor for time represents a moving observer wherein the present is the position on the path in which the observer is positioned.

In this metaphor the observer is moving through time. Time is a path that I move through. Time, i.e. the path can be long or short, time can be bounded.

There is trouble ahead. Let’s spread this project over several days. We reached summer already.

In this metaphor we construct temporal correlates with distance measurements: long, short, pass, through, over, down the road, etc.

Quotes from Philosophy in the Flesh by Lakoff and Johnson

[Smoogles]

Very interesting, and I respect your ideas. But, is time even real outside of human consciousness? It is abstract, we cannot touch it. Only measure it, through devices conceived by man. With out us would time even be something to grasp? All that I am sure exist is the ever present now. Then again, I am being general... how many things would not exist without human innovation. I do believe time to be an abstract idea to say the least.

[coberst]

Very interesting, and I respect your ideas. But, is time even real outside of human consciousness? It is abstract, we cannot touch it. Only measure it, through devices conceived by man. With out us would time even be something to grasp? All that I am sure exist is the ever present now. Then again, I am being general... how many things would not exist without human innovation. I do believe time to be an abstract idea to say the least.

An abstract idea (concept) does not exist outside the human "mind", but it is important to keep in mind that everything that we think, know, and perceive exists outside of the human mind only in our projection of it as existing outside of the human mind. That which is outside the human mind exists but we cannot know it with certainty. We tend to think that the objects that we perceive are in fact existing as mind independent reality. But we can only know what we have processed as being "the thing-in-itself".

Objectivity is our shared subjectivity. Abstract concepts are constructed from concrete ideas (concepts). Abstract ideas are often objectified (reified) and treated as objects. We are meaning creating creatures and we constantly create and reify abstract ideas that we will live, die, and kill for. Freedom and time are examples of these reified ideas.

[Smoogles]

Very well worded, you are. But, there are some concrete things such as 2+2=4. Then there is the notion of things such as love, freedom, and time. Time, is a measurement of something we cannot see, touch, or even know exists. Yes, we do perceive many things that exist outside of the human mind.

But, how are we to measure something we are not even sure exists? How does one come up with the notion of time being something more than abstract? We are merely keeping track of something which we perceive to be a concept of time. How are we to know time even exists? If it does, to what does it obey? Is it as real as space? Gravity, is observable. Time, is a measurement of something we know not of its certainty... whereof, we cannot speak. (jgweed)

Time is said to be a flat sheet, graphical by nature, laid out throughout the universe. What keeps this bound to space? What makes something constant like space tied into an ever changing variable such as time? If time is changing and evolving, does space act in the similar ways? How is this possible, or observable?

Everything outside the human mind has uncertainty, the notion of time leaves me to be uncertain.

Ah, how vocabulary limits our communication.

[coberst]

Very well worded, you are. But, there are some concrete things such as 2+2=4. Then there is the notion of things such as love, freedom, and time. Time, is a measurement of something we cannot see, touch, or even know exists. Yes, we do perceive many things that exist outside of the human mind.

But, how are we to measure something we are not even sure exists? How does one come up with the notion of time being something more than abstract? We are merely keeping track of something which we perceive to be a concept of time. How are we to know time even exists? If it does, to what does it obey? Is it as real as space? Gravity, is observable. Time, is a measurement of something we know not of its certainty... whereof, we cannot speak. (jgweed)

Time is said to be a flat sheet, graphical by nature, laid out throughout the universe. What keeps this bound to space? What makes something constant like space tied into an ever changing variable such as time? If time is changing and evolving, does space act in the similar ways? How is this possible, or observable?

Everything outside the human mind has uncertainty, the notion of time leaves me to be uncertain.

Ah, how vocabulary limits our communication.

Uncertainty is the human condition even though humans try desperately to find a means to repress that anxiety inducing fact. I suspect most of what we do is a result of our efforts to create illusions that we can live by. I am convinced that we have created religion and therein an everlasting existence because we cannot handle the anxiety of our mortality.

2+2=4 is true by definition; nothing is allowed within a math system that is not true to the system. A triangle has three sides by definition. All legitimate members of a ‘men only club’ are men. Such things are true by definition. Such things are true because they are members of a closed system. Such things are not matters of induction but are deductions about things within a closed system.

[LMK]

Is time an abstract idea?

The following is this poster's opinion only and does not reflect actual study in any area of sciences or the published opnions of others. It is an opinion that this poster has had for many many years.

Time does not exist. The word and the concept are conventions employed for communication purposes.

~L

[Smoogles]

Uncertainty is the human condition even though humans try desperately to find a means to repress that anxiety inducing fact. I suspect most of what we do is a result of our efforts to create illusions that we can live by. I am convinced that we have created religion and therein an everlasting existence because we cannot handle the anxiety of our mortality.

Yes, for as we all know "Religion is humanities crutch." The father figure in a fatherless adulthood, the consolation that there is more to life after death, the thing that makes it alright to make mistakes and be forgiven, to know it's alright that you are not perfect because there is an all-forgiving being. But is time an illusion to live by? Or is it just a mere contraption created by man to measure, such as a measuring cup. Instead of water, sun rise and sunset. A way of recording where we left off. Is there any substance in this measuring cup besides observation of oblivious day and night?

2+2=4 is true by definition; nothing is allowed within a math system that is not true to the system. A triangle has three sides by definition. All legitimate members of a ‘men only club’ are men. Such things are true by definition. Such things are true because they are members of a closed system. Such things are not matters of induction but are deductions about things within a closed system.

This arises a question, what is your definition of time?

[coberst]

Time is an abstract idea (concept).

What is an abstract idea (concept)?

An abstract concept, according to SGCS theory that I am convinced is the best theory available at this point in time, is a concept constructed from one or more concrete concepts. We have a concrete experience, i.e. physical experience of the clock pendulum movement, or the metronome ticking, or the river water rushing by, or of today turning into tomorrow, and these conceptual structures are mapped into the subjective experience mental space that is labeled "time" and this makes up our understanding of the concept we call time.