Single Idea 5698

[catalogued under 27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 2. Passage of Time / a. Experience of time]

Full Idea

It must not be claimed that anyone can sense time by itself apart from the movement of things or their restful immobility.

Gist of Idea

We can only sense time by means of movement, or its absence

Source

Lucretius (On the Nature of the Universe [c.60 BCE], I.465)

Book Reference

Lucretius: 'On the Nature of the Universe', ed/tr. Latham,Ronald [Penguin 1951], p.41


A Reaction

This seems a remarkably Einsteinian remark, though he is only talking of the epistemology of the matter, not the ontology. We are not far from the concept of space-time here.