Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Re: Whiping the World Clean

In Joel's latest post he questioned time's existence and if it exists without humans. He ended by asking if time flows or do we flow through it?


In the article by Bradley Dowden talks about the flow of time and how there are two main theories. The first theory is known as the, "Myth-of-passage theory." This theory basically states that the flow of time is all in our heads. There is not an objective flow of time, but there is a possibility that our minds tell us there is. The second theory is known as the, "dynamic theory." This theory states that "the flow of time is objective, a feature of our mind-independence."


I'm not sure I see the difference in the two theories but, I believe that the flow of time is perceived by the events that you are doing and your feelings towards them. If you are doing something you love for 3 hours oppose to something that you hate for an hour, that hour is going to flow a lot slower than the 3 hours, possibly to the point where the 3 hours seemed like it was less time than the one.

So to answer Joel's question I think that time flows atomically, but it doesn't affect how fast or slow it feels. Depending on what we are doing determines how fast or slow time is passing. So in reality time flows automically, but it seems as though we flowing through time and our actions determine the speed of that flow.

What is the difference between the "myth-of-passage theory" and the "dynamic theory"?

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