19384
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Space and time are the order of all possibilities, and don't just relate to what is actual [Leibniz]
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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.
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From:
Gottfried Leibniz (Reply to 'Rorarius' 2nd ed [1702], GP iv 568), quoted by Richard T.W. Arthur - Leibniz 7 'Space and Time'
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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.
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22888
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To be aware of time it can only exist in the mind, as memory or anticipation [Augustine, by Bardon]
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Full Idea:
Augustine answers that for us to be aware of time it must exist only in the mind, …and the difference between past and future is just the difference between memory and anticipation.
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From:
report of Augustine (Confessions [c.398]) by Adrian Bardon - Brief History of the Philosophy of Time 1 'Augustine's'
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A reaction:
This is an extreme idealist view. Are we to say that the past consists only of what can be remembered, and the future only of what is anticipated? Absurd anti-realism, in my view. Where do his concepts come from, asks Le Poidevin.
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5979
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If the past is no longer, and the future is not yet, how can they exist? [Augustine]
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Full Idea:
Of the three divisions of time, how can two, the past and the future, be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet?
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From:
Augustine (Confessions [c.398], XI.14)
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A reaction:
This is the oldest bewilderment about time, which naturally leads us to the thought that time cannot actually 'exist'. The remark implies that at least 'now' is safe, but that also succumbs to paradox pretty quickly.
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5978
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I know what time is, until someone asks me to explain it [Augustine]
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Full Idea:
I know well enough what time is, provided that nobody asks me; but if I am asked what it is and try to explain, I am baffled.
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From:
Augustine (Confessions [c.398], XI.14)
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A reaction:
A justly famous remark, even though it adds nothing to our knowledge of time. This sort of thought pushes us towards accepting many things as axiomatic, such as time, space, identity, persons, mind.
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