Single Idea 20821

[catalogued under 27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 3. Parts of Time / e. Present moment]

Full Idea

Chrysippus says most clearly that no time is wholly present; for since the divisibility of continuous things is infinite, time as a whole is also subject to infinite divisibility by this method of division.

Gist of Idea

Time is continous and infinitely divisible, so there cannot be a wholly present time

Source

report of Chrysippus (fragments/reports [c.240 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 1.08.42

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.88


A Reaction

But what is his reason for thinking that time is a continuous thing? There is a minimum time in quantum mechanics (the Planck Time), but do these quantum intervals overlap? Compare Idea 20819.

Related Ideas

Idea 20818 The present does not exist, so our immediate experience is actually part past and part future [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]

Idea 20819 The past and the future subsist, but only the present exists [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]