Religion and Ethics Forum
Religion and Ethics Discussion => Philosophy, in all its guises. => Topic started by: Sriram on June 05, 2025, 06:54:36 AM
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Hi everyone,
I don't believe that there is anything that we call Time that goes on forever. Time is only a human construct to understand and measure change.
https://tsriramrao.wordpress.com/2017/06/24/time/
Change exists but time is only a means to measure change.
Cheers.
Sriram
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This is just a deepity, it doesn't really matter if you call it time or change you are referring to the same view of something. The idea of change and time are so intertwined that this adds nothing.
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You lost me at "human construct". I'm afraid. that and "social construct" are pretentious, cheaply cynical, empty cliches used by pseudo-intellectuals. I once saw "Love is a social construct" spray-painted on a flyover support.
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You lost me at "human construct". I'm afraid. that and "social construct" are pretentious, cheaply cynical, empty cliches used by pseudo-intellectuals. I once saw "Love is a social construct" spray-painted on a flyover support.
I think there's a valid idea in looking at things that are about subjective experience rather than intersubjective 'reality'. I agree that it's often used cheaply, though i am less convinced about the cynicism. Not as bad a phrase as 'lived experience' imo.
I think here Sriram is misusing it. Time isn't a human construct rather it is about how we experience existence. You might as well say space is a human construct but in terms of this usage everything becomes a human/social construct and the meaning is lost. In the way Sriram is using it hete, change is a human construct, so his statements become empty
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Time is a human construct in the sense that it doesn't actually exist in objective terms. Where is Time....what is it?
Change actually exists all around us...everywhere. Everything is changing all the time in some way or the other. Even our flow of thoughts is change.....
When we observe the change in terms of a sequence.....past, present and future....time comes into existence...in our minds.But not in reality out there.
If humans did not exist where is time? Space and change however will continue to exist.
I am not talking about the universe existing within the human mind as a subjective experience.....solipsism. That is speculative.
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I'm sure there are many different ways to think about time. I rather like this one from the 13th century Dogen:
"The time we call spring blossoms directly as an existence called flowers. The flowers, in turn, express the time called spring. This is not existence within time; existence itself is time."