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Full Idea
Absolute, true, and mathematical time, in and of itself and of its own nature, without reference to anything external, flows uniformly and by another name is called duration.
Gist of Idea
Time exists independently, and flows uniformly
Source
Isaac Newton (Principia Mathematica [1687], Def 8 Schol)
Book Ref
Newton,Isaac: 'Philosophical Writings' [CUP 2004], p.64
A Reaction
This invites the notorious question of, if time flows uniformly, how fast time flows. Maybe we should bite the bullet and say 'one second per second', or maybe we should say 'this fact is beyond our powers of comprehension'.
Related Ideas
Idea 17013 Absolute space is independent, homogeneous and immovable [Newton]
Idea 17015 If there is no uniform motion, we cannot exactly measure time [Newton]
| 14525 | Stoics say time is incorporeal and self-sufficient; Epicurus says it is a property of properties of things [Epicurus] |
| 13311 | Does time exist on its own? Did anything precede it? Did it pre-exist the cosmos? [Seneca] |
| 22915 | Newton needs intervals of time, to define velocity and acceleration [Newton, by Le Poidevin] |
| 22893 | Newton thought his laws of motion needed absolute time [Newton, by Bardon] |
| 17012 | Time exists independently, and flows uniformly [Newton] |
| 14012 | Absolute time, from its own nature, flows equably, without relation to anything external [Newton] |
| 5536 | If space and time exist absolutely, we must assume the existence of two pointless non-entities [Kant] |
| 16921 | If all empirical sensation of bodies is removed, space and time are still left [Kant] |
| 24141 | Having a sense of time presupposes absolute time [Nietzsche] |
| 12689 | Simultaneity can be temporal equidistance from the Big Bang [Ellis] |
| 18279 | Relativity is as absolutist about space-time as Newton was about space [Coffa] |
| 16264 | I believe the passing of time is a fundamental fact about the world [Maudlin] |
| 14013 | Special Relativity allows an absolute past, future, elsewhere and simultaneity [Bourne] |