The Philosophy of Time
Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of existence
Does anyone really know what time is it?
Does anyone really care about time?
If so, I can’t imagine why.
- Robert Lamm
That 1969 lyric captures a certain sentiment with which I am sympathetic. Perhaps not having to care at all about time is an ideal way of living, and many great spiritual teachers may agree. Alas, the world has other priorities.
Most people would agree that time is something real, but what is time? We all use measurements and devices to calculate time but we don’t know what time is. A clock is not time. A calendar is not time. We created the units that we use to measure time and our units of time are arbitrary.
We measure time in arbitrary units but what are we measuring? Scientists don’t know (no, sorry, you don’t). Philosophers don’t know. Sure, there are theories and conjectures, and a quick run through those imaginaries is worth a few minutes of time, whatever time is.
