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Full Idea
Space and time taken together constitute the order of possibilities of the one entire universe, so that these orders relate not only to what actually is, but also to anything that could be put in its place.
Gist of Idea
Space and time are the order of all possibilities, and don't just relate to what is actual
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Reply to 'Rorarius' 2nd ed [1702], GP iv 568), quoted by Richard T.W. Arthur - Leibniz 7 'Space and Time'
Book Ref
Arthur, Richard T.W.: 'Leibniz' [Polity 2014], p.153
A Reaction
A very nice idea. Rather like the 'space of reasons', where all rational thought must exist, space and time are the 'space of existence and action'. Their concepts involve more than relations between what actually exists.
| 13228 | There is no time without movement [Aristotle] |
| 20920 | If there were many cosmoses, each would have its own time, giving many times [Aristotle] |
| 1903 | If motion and rest are abolished, so is time [Sext.Empiricus] |
| 19384 | Space and time are the order of all possibilities, and don't just relate to what is actual [Leibniz] |
| 2100 | Space and time are purely relative [Leibniz] |
| 13181 | Time is the order of inconsistent possibilities [Leibniz] |
| 4189 | Time may be defined as the possibility of mutually exclusive conditions of the same thing [Schopenhauer] |
| 2608 | For McTaggart time is seen either as fixed, or as relative to events [McTaggart, by Ayer] |
| 2949 | We have the confused idea that time is a process of change [Lockwood] |
| 9504 | The relational view of space-time doesn't cover times and places where things could be [Bird] |