One Role of Time

Jul. 03, 2024

What is the role of time? … Time prevents everything from being given at once … It is not the vehicle of creativity and choice? Is not the existence of time the proof of indeterminism in nature?

— Possible and the Real by Henri Bergson1

(Obtained from The End of Certainty2 by Ilya Prigogine3)

“Time prevents everything from being given at once.” Looking backward, everything in the past is certain (by the way, although I think that the past is of certainty in an objective view, I don’t believe anyone can completely deduce, or say ‘compute’, from the past to date, let alone the future); while looking forward, everything is unknown and the future provides a room for lots of possibilities. I think for this reason the life per se is very interesting and beautiful.


References

  1. Henri Bergson. ˄

  2. Prigogine, Ilya, and Isabelle Stengers. The end of certainty: Time Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature. Simon and Schuster, 1997. ˄

  3. Ilya Prigogine. ˄