Time
Across philosophical traditions, the concept of time is expressed through various terms that reflect fundamental differences in how it is perceived, such as linear, cyclical, or an illusion.
Western Philosophical Traditions
Ancient Greek philosophy offered two primary words for time, which have influenced Western thought:
- Chronos (χρόνος): Refers to quantitative, chronological, or sequential time—the measurable flow that can be tracked by clocks.
- Kairos (καιρός): Refers to qualitative, opportune, or “right” time—a specific, propitious moment for action or experience. [8, 9]
In later Western philosophy, major conceptual distinctions led to other terms:
- A-theory (Presentism/Dynamic Time/Tensed Time): The view that only the present is real, and time genuinely “flows” from the past to the future.
- B-theory (Eternalism/Static Time/Tenseless Time): The view that all points in time (past, present, and future) are equally real, existing as part of a four-dimensional “block universe”.
- Absolute Time: As proposed by Isaac Newton, time that exists independently of any events or observers, flowing uniformly on its own.
- Relative Time: For Newton, the perceived measure of duration based on the motion of objects. Gottfried Leibniz countered with a relational view, arguing time is merely a concept for sequencing events, not an independent reality.
- Dasein: In Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology, the concept that human existence (Being) is inseparable from time.
Eastern Philosophical
Traditions Eastern traditions generally favor a cyclical view of time, often linking it to natural cycles and spiritual concepts:
- Samsara: In Hinduism and Buddhism, this refers to the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, from which liberation (nirvana) is the goal.
- Kalachakra (Wheel of Time): A term used in Vedic and Buddhist philosophy for the grand, repeating cycles of universal creation and destruction.
- Jikan and Toki: In Japanese, these words reflect the Greek duality, with jikan referring to chronological time and toki to the qualitative, opportune moment.
- Maya: In Advaita Vedanta, time, along with the phenomenal world, is often considered an illusion or a product of perception, lacking ultimate independent reality.
Other Traditions • Procedural Time: Found in some Aboriginal Australian and African cultures, where time is not measured abstractly in hours or cycles, but is relational, defined by the actual events and human activities being performed.
AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://philarchive.org/archive/CYCWIT
[2] https://philarchive.org/archive/CYCWIT
[3] https://tsa.itaihe.ac.ir/article_170022_en.html
[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987724000264
[6] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNgXHPLumUd/
[7] https://stinnocentmonastery.org/timeandeternityinorthodoxworship
[8] https://bluelabyrinths.com/2021/09/05/the-duality-of-time-in-eastern-and-western-philosophy/
[11] https://www.magiscenter.com/blog/what-is-time-part-one-philosophy
[13] https://academic.oup.com/book/7362/chapter/152157097
[14] https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2024/entries/consciousness-temporal/
[15] https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1364166/full
[16] https://vizal.medium.com/easts-wheel-west-s-arrow-the-philosophy-of-time-373c64c8b4ce
[17] https://www.facebook.com/groups/iskcontemple/posts/10029500313735876/
[18] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-different-cultures-understand-time-amina-rakhmankulova
Across different philosophical traditions, the “notion of temporal magnitude” is referred to by various terms and concepts, often reflecting different theories about the fundamental nature of time itself. [1]
Western Philosophy
- Duration (Durée): In Henri Bergson’s philosophy, durée refers to the continuous, fluid, qualitative flow of time as experienced subjectively in consciousness, in contrast to the divisible, spatialized, “clock time” (temps) used by science.
- Temporal parts: This term is used in perdurantism, a modern philosophical theory of persistence, where an object is considered to have “temporal parts” that are spread across different moments in time, much like spatial parts are spread across different places.
- Perdurance/Endurance: These terms describe the mode of an object’s existence through time. Perdurance means persisting by having temporal parts, while endurance means persisting by being wholly present at every moment of its existence.
- Chronos: In ancient Greek philosophy, this refers to linear, quantitative, measurable time, often associated with chronology and physics.
- Kairos: The other ancient Greek word for time, kairos, refers to qualitative time, or the “opportune” or “right” moment, emphasizing the significance of a temporal event rather than its measured length.
- Absolute time: Isaac Newton’s concept of time as an independent, universal, and unchanging dimension that exists on its own, regardless of events or observers.
- Relative time: The Aristotelian and Leibnizian view that time is not an independent entity but rather a system of temporal relations between events, a measure of change or motion.
- Temporality: In Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology, temporality is the fundamental structure of human existence (Dasein), indicating that humans do not simply exist in time, but are time in a meaningful way, incorporating past, present, and future into their being. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Eastern Philosophy • Kalachakra (Wheel of Time): In ancient Indian (Vedic, Buddhist) philosophy, time is often viewed as cyclical, with the universe going through repeated, vast cycles of creation, destruction, and rebirth. This “wheel of time” implies immense, repeating temporal magnitudes.
- Samsara: A Sanskrit word meaning “wandering” or “world,” which in Buddhism connotes the cyclic, circuitous change and the endless cycle of suffering and rebirth over a prolonged duration.
- Jikan / Toki: In Japanese, Jikan can refer to quantitative, chronological time (similar to Chronos), while Toki refers to qualitative, significant time (similar to Kairos), reflecting a universal duality in conceptualizing time’s magnitude and moment. [1, 5, 7, 8, 9]
The specific term used for “temporal magnitude” often depends on whether the philosophy views time as an objective, measurable dimension, a subjective experience, or a relational aspect of change and existence. [1, 10]
AI responses may include mistakes.
[2] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/temporal-parts/
[3] https://iep.utm.edu/per-time/
[4] wikipedia/en/Duration_(philosophy)
[5] https://bluelabyrinths.com/2021/09/05/the-duality-of-time-in-eastern-and-western-philosophy/
[6] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/
[7] https://naturalminddharma.org/2020/06/16/circle-of-time/
[8] wikipedia/en/Wheel_of_time
[9] https://www.maize.io/cultural-factory/historical-review-time/
[10] https://iep.utm.edu/arrow-of-time/
Words for empty time include homogenized time (linear, uniform time), the void (empty space and time in Greek philosophy), and dead time (abstract time in certain continental philosophies). In Eastern traditions, the closest concept is often Śūnyatā (emptiness) which is not an absence but a state of mind leading to deep focus and an egoless state.
| Term | Tradition | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Homogenized, empty time | Western/Continental Philosophy | Time viewed as a continuous, uniform line where each moment has equal value, often contrasted with “fulfilling time” (a more subjective experience of time). |
| The void (κενόν) | Ancient Greek Philosophy | The absolute absence of matter and being, which was debated. Parmenides argued it was impossible, while Atomists like Democritus saw it as the space in which atoms move. |
| Dead time | Continental Philosophy | An abstracted, devitalized, or “dead” form of time that is detached from living matter, often used as the substratum for representational thought. |
| Śūnyatā (emptiness) | Buddhism | The lack of inherent existence, but not a total void. It is a state of mind that leads to deep focus and an egoless state, used as a tool for spiritual development. |
| Void (nothingness) | Metaphysics | A broader philosophical concept referring to nothingness, the absence of being, which has been debated across various traditions and epochs. |
AI responses may include mistakes.
[2] https://uw.pressbooks.pub/honors211ctime/chapter/homogenous-empty-time-zeynep-biyikli/
[3] https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/opphil-2024-0055/html
[5] wikipedia/en/%C5%9A%C5%ABnyat%C4%81
[6] wikipedia/en/The_Void_(philosophy)
[7] https://www.theastronomycafe.net/tools/nothing-philosophy.html
[8] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11007-022-09581-0
Philosophical traditions generally focus on the nature of time itself (linear, cyclical, an illusion, etc.), rather than specific “units” in a standardized way. The words used for the notion of time or its aspects often reflect these fundamental metaphysical viewpoints.
Ancient Greek Philosophy Ancient Greek thought provided a foundational distinction that influences Western thinking:
- Chronos (Χρόνος): Refers to quantitative, chronological, or sequential time—the measurable passage of moments. This is the concept from which modern “units of time” (seconds, hours, etc.) are derived etymologically and conceptually.
- Kairos (Καιρός): Refers to qualitative, opportune, or “the right moment”. It is a metaphysical or divine sense of time, unmeasurable in a linear fashion, focusing on the quality or appropriateness of an event rather than its duration.
Aristotle defined time (chronos) as “the number of movement in respect of the before and after” (arithmos kinēseōs kata to proteron kai husteron). This highlights the relational aspect, where time is a measure of change and does not exist independently of events.
Eastern Philosophical Traditions Eastern traditions, particularly Hinduism and Buddhism, predominantly view time as cyclical.
- Kāla (काल): In Hindu philosophy (Advaita Vedanta), Kāla refers to time as an integral part of the phenomenal world, which is a product of maya (illusion). The universe undergoes vast, repeated cycles (Kalachakra or “Wheel of Time”) of creation, preservation, and destruction, with no ultimate beginning or end in a linear sense.
- Kalachakra: Literally the “wheel of time,” a central concept in some Buddhist and Hindu cosmologies, emphasizing the endless, repeating nature of existence and time.
- The “Now” (presentism): Some Sophist and also certain Buddhist philosophical views suggest that the past and future are unreal, and only the present moment truly exists.
Western Philosophical Traditions (Medieval and Modern)
- Absolute Time: Isaac Newton posited “absolute time,” which exists independently of any events or observers, flowing uniformly. This concept treats time as a dimension or a “container” with inherent, measurable units.
- Relational Time: Gottfried Leibniz and others argued that time is not an independent entity but a conceptual framework of relations among events (before/after, simultaneous). Units of time are human constructs for ordering events.
- Duration: Henri Bergson’s concept of duration (durée) distinguishes between “clock time” (measurable, spatialized time) and the continuous, internal, subjective “real time” experienced by consciousness, which is not divisible into discrete, homogenous units.
Key Takeaway Across traditions, the “notion of units of time” is a modern, Western, scientific concept rooted in chronos or absolute time. Many other philosophies treat time as a holistic, often cyclical, or subjective phenomenon that is not inherently divisible into uniform, abstract units in the same way.
AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/time/chpt/religions-time
[3] https://www.facebook.com/groups/516709006035364/posts/1310820009957589/
[5] https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/time/v-1
[6] https://www.asianetworkexchange.org/article/id/7830/
[7] https://www.planksip.org/the-influence-of-ancient-greek-philosophy-on-western-thought-and-culture/
[8] https://shs.cairn.info/journal-revue-de-metaphysique-et-de-morale-2012-2-page-195?lang=en
[10] https://beunsettled.co/blog/more-kairos-less-chronos-live-more-work-less/
[11] wikipedia/en/Kairos
[12] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-lexico-semantic-field-of-the-concept-time_fig1_328238281
[13] https://thewastedworld.com/2023/03/25/reading-benjamins-theses-p7/
[14] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/
[15] wikipedia/en/Philosophy_of_space_and_time
[16] https://fs.blog/what-is-time/
[17] https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/mp-2021-0004/html
[18] https://vizal.medium.com/easts-wheel-west-s-arrow-the-philosophy-of-time-373c64c8b4ce
[20] https://medium.com/original-philosophy/the-philosophy-of-time-d582b1e9300b
[21] https://www.europeanproceedings.com/article/10.15405/epsbs.2020.10.05.455
[22] https://rationalisingtheuniverse.org/2017/06/20/whats-the-proper-time/
[23] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-different-cultures-understand-time-amina-rakhmankulova
[25] https://medium.com/frame-for-work/frame-for-work-the-aion-chronos-kairos-schema-14ea7ca5ea45
[26] https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/697e91a2-21a1-4326-aaea-01fc7b784465
[27] https://www.vaia.com/en-us/explanations/anthropology/jewish-studies/philosophy-of-time/