Nature of Time
Whatever else may be said about time, one thing is known for certain. Time goes beyond mere definition. Time is a matter that consists all around us and is great importance in the world, however it cannot be expressed in terms of other such things. The New Edition of The Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary tells us that time is "the indefinite continued progress of existence, events etc. In the past, present and future regarded as a whole. The progress of this as affecting persons or things (stood the test of time)" Of course what the dictionary's specialised vocabulary has said here is that time can be defined by measurement and measurement is a period during which something occurs. It has not really answered nor told us what time is.Indeed that very fact that time can be made an issue of reflection shows us that what the word time connotes, changes with the circumstances in which it is used. This situation alone would not constitute a problem, had we just accepted that the context in which the word time was present, defined the meaning in each case. But we do not do that, and that is were the question of "what is time?" arises. People seem to think that the word time referred to some independent dimension of nature, that co
It is true to say that living takes place now, in the very moment in which it is taking place. Living can be said to be a dynamic that disappears as it takes place. Living takes place in no time, without the aid of past or present. The past, present and future are said to be notions that we as human beings, we as observers, invent, as we try to explain our occurrence in the now. Time is invented as a background in which case, past, present and future all hold value. But life on the other hand, living, takes is place now. In a wonderful flow of ever changing processes. To allow one to say such things, is a manner of explaining experience, in which we again find ourselves asking and seeking the explanation of living, of time. It is safe to say that we retain the sense of a continual forward progression in the matter of time. It is not time that is altered but the state of the matter. We require time itself to make leaps and bounds forward or backward. To do so we imagine that the evolution of the universe is like that evolution of a motion picture. If our universe was so constructed, it is conceivable that a person could in a sense jump forward or backward between frames using that mechanism favoured by science fiction. A hole in the fabric of space, of time, but knowing time as we see and conceive it to be individually, and such things are far out of reach and many say impossible. The amusing and perhaps instructive question of time travel to the past or future becomes a question of returning or advancing the configuration of all entries in the universe. Could as an example, a person travel backward in time? Time travel to have
Some common words found in the essay are:
Oxford Dictionary, , past future, living takes, goes beyond, sequences processes, dimension nature, forward backward,
Approximate Word count = 1111
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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