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27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 1. Nature of Time / e. Eventless time

[status of time when nothing moves or happens]

7 ideas

18455	Some think time is seen at rest, as well as in movement [Porphyry]
	Full Idea: Some have believed that time manifested in rest as well as in movement.
	From: Porphyry (Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind [c.280], 5Enn3 32(5-7))
	A reaction: If you like this idea, you should see Shoemaker's lovely three-worlds thought experiment.

16697	Time is independent of motion, because God could stop everything for a short or long time [Crathorn, by Pasnau]
	Full Idea: Suppose God annihilates everything, and then creates something new. The vacant interval could last a shorter or longer time, so there are facts about time independent of facts about motion.
	From: report of William Crathorn (Sentences [1335], I.16, concl.2) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 18.2
	A reaction: Not very persuasive if God is in some way 'timeless'. Crathorn would have loved Shoemaker's argument, where motionless time is the best explanation, rather than a possible explanation.

12955	If there were duration without change, we could never establish its length [Leibniz]
	Full Idea: If there were a vacuum in space, one could establish its size. But if there were a vacuum in time, i.e. a duration without change, it would be impossible to establish its length.
	From: Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 2.15)
	A reaction: See Idea 4226 for Shoemaker's wonderful counterproposal to this apparently unanswerable claim. I suppose Leibniz is right, but it just might be possible to bring induction to bear on the problem.

4226	If three regions 'freeze' every three, four and five years, after sixty years everything stops for a year [Shoemaker, by Lowe]
	Full Idea: If region A has a year's 'freeze' every three years, region B does it every four years, and C every five years, every sixty years they would all freeze, and there would be no witnesses. The simplest hypothesis is that a year passes with no events.
	From: report of Sydney Shoemaker (Time Without Change [1969]) by E.J. Lowe - A Survey of Metaphysics p.247
	A reaction: Lovely argument. I definitely vote for there being a year of time with no events, even though it contradicats Einstein and the rest. As usual, we should be doing ontology, but get lured into epistemology.

8595	If three regions freeze every 3rd, 4th and 5th year, they all freeze together every 60 years [Shoemaker]
	Full Idea: If region A locally freezes (for one year, observed by the other two regions) every third year, and region B every fourth year, and region B every fifth year, ...then every sixtieth year there will be a total freeze lasting one year.
	From: Sydney Shoemaker (Time Without Change [1969], p.56)
	A reaction: One of the most brilliant thought experiments in modern philosophy!!! He demonstrates that there can be time without change, but also that we must rely on best explanation, and that there is more to ontology than epistemology (let alone semantics).

22917	Since nothing occurs in a temporal vacuum, there is no way to measure its length [Le Poidevin]
	Full Idea: Since, by definition, nothing happens in a temporal vacuum, there is no possible means of determining its length.
	From: Robin Le Poidevin (Travels in Four Dimensions [2003], 02 'without change')
	A reaction: This is offered a part of a dubious proof that a temporal vacuum is impossible. I like Shoemaker's three worlds thought experiment, which tests this idea to the limit.

22921	Temporal vacuums would be unexperienced, unmeasured, and unending [Le Poidevin]
	Full Idea: Three arguments that a temporal vacuum is impossible: we can't experience it, we can't measure it, and it would have no reason to ever terminate.
	From: Robin Le Poidevin (Travels in Four Dimensions [2003], 03 'Lessons')
	A reaction: [summarised] The first two reasons are unimpressive. The interiors of black holes are off limits for us. The arrival of time into a timeless situation may actually have occurred, but be beyond our understanding.