time

Abstract

Everything that is individually experienced by people, along with every external event and process – especially in nature – can be ordered according to succession, and thus temporally. In this sense, time is always an ordering parameter of events. What is disputed within philosophy, however, is what else constitutes time; for example, whether it is relative or absolute, subjective or objective, a form of intuition or a substance, whether there are sub-types of time that are irreducible or can be derived from each other in a specific way, and the like. Characteristic of time as an ordering parameter is the combination of aspects of continuous change (linearity) with those of regular recurrence (cyclicity). Furthermore, in the scientific-technical description of external events, so-called B-time or tenseless ascriptions (i.e. earlier-later relations) are often of particular importance. In contrast, so-called A-time or tensed ascriptions (being present versus being past or future) are usually central to experience. Thus, in the context of natural philosophy – which deals with scientific-technical concepts of nature as well as with nature as experienced – both a separate understanding of A- and B- times and an understanding of their interrelations is of central importance.