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Full Idea
To the mathematician as such there is no relevant distinction between the instants of time and the points on a line.
Gist of Idea
Mathematicians don't distinguish between instants of time and points on a line
Source
Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903], §387)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'Principles of Mathematics' [Routledge 1992], p.403
A Reaction
This is the germ of the modern view of space time, which is dictated by the mathematics, rather than by our intuitions or insights into what is actually going on.
16693 | Time has parts, but the now is not one of them, and time is not composed of nows [Aristotle] |
22958 | Nows can't be linked together, any more than points on a line [Aristotle] |
12486 | An 'instant' is where we perceive no succession, and is the time of a single idea [Locke] |
14156 | Mathematicians don't distinguish between instants of time and points on a line [Russell] |
16207 | Time could be discrete (like integers) or dense (rationals) or continuous (reals) [Hawley] |