Single Idea 22908

[catalogued under 27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 2. Passage of Time / g. Time's arrow]

Full Idea

When one of two non-contemporaneous elements contains the grounds for the other, the former is regarded as the antecedent, and the latter as the consequence

Gist of Idea

When one element contains the grounds of the other, the first one is prior in time

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (Metaphysical Foundations of Mathematics [1715], p.201)

Book Reference

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Leibniz Selections', ed/tr. Wiener,Philip P. [Scribners 1951], p.201


A Reaction

Bardon cites this passage of Leibniz as the origin of the idea that time's arrow is explained by the direction of causation. Bardon prefers it to the psychological and entropy accounts.