Is Time Real Essay

Is Time Real The aspects of time that we can understand are only based on what we can perceive, observe, and calculate. Every day we look at our watches or clocks. We plan our day around different times of the day. Time tells us when to eat, when to sleep, and how long to do things for. Is time real? To answer this question, let me explain what time is first. Time is defined as a measured or measurable period, a continuum that lacks spatial dimensions. This broad definition lacks the simple explanation that humans are searching for. There are many scientists, philosophers, and thinkers who have tried to put time into understanding terms. In the following paragraph, I will discuss the meaning of time perceived and theorized by two of the greatest minds of human kind ? Einstein and Kant. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity (study guide, 53) came up with the idea that both space and time were relative to the observer, or the state of motion of the observer (Broadcast). If there are two chairs, and you see someone sitting in one, when you turn away, you can not be sure that he or she is still there. You also can not be sure that they are not in two chairs at the same time, or what point in time they are in them. This all leads up to Einstein’s theory that time is relative. What Einstein’s theory seemed to tell us was that time is not absolute and universal. It can be changed by motion. Each observer carries around his own personal scale of time and it does not absolutely agree with anybody else’s. However, some philosophers have argued that all time is unreal. Kant, for example, claimed that time both the subjective time we experience as flowing, and objective time as the fixed series of all events ? is a construct of the human mind (Manuel Velasquez, 244). For Kant space and time are not real things, but are modes of experience. Kant’s solution was to say that there is something in our mind, that makes everything that we experience to our sense be located in time so that the physical world is simply bound to be temporal because of the way our minds works (Broadcast). From my point of view, time is definitely real, only our experience of time is subjective. For example, we see a train with blue color followed by yellow color followed by blue and so on. We will at first be able to distinguish the blue from the yellow as the train starts moving. After a while, the train moves very fast that the sequence appears to be simultaneous to our eyes and mind and we see green. We can see time is real because blue follows yellow, but our perception of time is subjective because we don’t see a sequence of blue following yellow, but something else entirely. In conclusion, time is not easily explained or understood by anyone. Einstein and Kant have expanded their minds by coming up with possible theories for the unknown. We can theorize, and calculate our own, but I think it will always be an unknown. The mysteries of the universe will in my opinion be just that, a mystery. Resources: Manuel Velasquez. â€Å"Introduction: What is philosophy† Philosophy: A text with Readings. New York: Wadsworth, 2005. 244.