Abstract
This chapter analyses how duration, or temporal extension, can be understood in a theory explaining time in terms of change. First, it is argued that no absolute background time is needed in order to explain the fact that a particular type of change can take more or less time. Second, the question of whether causation is diachronic or simultaneous is examined with the help of contemporary literature, and an argument is given why simultaneous causation does not lead to the absurd consequence whereby causal processes would have zero duration. Third, a distinction is made between change with and without quantification. In this context, an ancient concept, that of the aevum, turns out to be useful.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Leibniz employed his PII to argue against the Newtonian idea of an absolute space. As Dainton (Time and Space, 2nd edn [2010], pp. 233–234) points out, a “nocturnal doubling” of all lengths in space makes no difference, as long as the underlying space is Euclidean, so that the state resulting from nocturnal doubling is indiscernible from its predecessor.
- 2.
Cf. S. Mumford, R. L. Anjum, Getting Causes from Powers (2011), pp. 106–107.
- 3.
D. Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, book I, part III, section II.
- 4.
D. H. Mellor, Real Time II (1998), pp. 105–111.
- 5.
Mumford, Anjum (2011), pp. 108–109.
- 6.
pp. 120 and 124.
- 7.
pp. 124–126.
- 8.
Mellor (1998), pp. 110–111.
- 9.
p. 113.
- 10.
Cf. T. P. Cheng, Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology, 2nd edn (2010), p. 184.
- 11.
Confessiones XI, 23.
- 12.
Tractatus logico-philosophicus, 4.1272.
- 13.
See any physics textbook, for example, H. D. Young, R. A. Freedman, University Physics, 13th edn (2012), p. 4.
- 14.
Disputationes Metaphysicae, L, sect. XI.
- 15.
Ibid., sect. XI, 12–13 and 16.
- 16.
Ibid., sect. X, 4. “ad summum possumus per unam partem illius motus repetitim mensurare totum, ut per horam, diem, et per diem, annum, etc. In quo mensurandi modo iam est mensura in re aliquo modo distincta a mensurato; ipsum tamen totum per seipsum mensurare non possumus.” The opposite view is stated by Unger: “The clock that is neither inside nor outside the universe must be the universe itself. What this means is that certain general, quantifiable, and slowly changing features of the universe, such as the recession of the galaxies in all directions, and the color temperature of the photons in the cosmic microwave radiation background, must be used to time some other change, either in the universe as a whole or in part of the universe.” L. Smolin, R. M. Unger, The Singular Universe and the Reality of Time (2015), p. 234.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Saudek, D. (2020). Duration of Processes of Change According to a Causal Theory. In: Change, the Arrow of Time, and Divine Eternity in Light of Relativity Theory. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38411-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38411-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-38410-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-38411-1
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)