more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 1904

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 1. Nature of Time / i. Denying time ]

Full Idea

There can't be a time when there was no time, so time is not limited; but unlimited time means past and present are non-existent (so time is limited to the present), or they exist (which means they are present). Time does not exist.

Gist of Idea

Time must be unlimited, but past and present can't be non-existent, and can't be now, so time does not exist

Source

Sextus Empiricus (Outlines of Pyrrhonism [c.180], III.142)

Book Ref

Sextus Empiricus: 'Outlines of Pyrrhonism', ed/tr. Bury,R.G. [Prometheus 1990], p.236


The 11 ideas with the same theme [time does not actually exist]:

How can time exist, when it is composed of what has ceased to be and is yet to be? [Aristotle]
If all of time has either ceased to exist, or has not yet happened, maybe time does not exist [Aristotle]
Time must be unlimited, but past and present can't be non-existent, and can't be now, so time does not exist [Sext.Empiricus]
The whole of the current year is not present, so how can it exist? [Augustine]
The past has ceased to exist, and the future does not yet exist, so time does not exist [William of Ockham]
No time exists except instants, and instants are not even a part of time, so time does not exist [Leibniz]
Time doesn't exist, since its parts don't coexist [Leibniz]
A-series time positions are contradictory, and yet all events occupy all of them! [McTaggart, by Le Poidevin]
Time involves change, only the A-series explains change, but it involves contradictions, so time is unreal [McTaggart, by Lowe]
How can we question the passage of time, if the question takes time to ask? [Bardon]
Most of the sciences depend on the concept of time [Baron/Miller]