Some Main Problems of Philosophy by Moore George Edward

Author:Moore, George Edward,.
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781317853152
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Chapter XI

IS TIME REAL?

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I have been trying to distinguish two different views, which I think some philosophers have held about Time.. The first was a view which I tried to express in something like the following way. It holds, I said, that there is not really any such thing as Time at all; that nothing whatever really exists or happens in. Time; and that, if, therefore, anybody believes that anything whatever ever happened before or after anything else, or that any two events ever happened at the same time, or that any one thing ever lasted longer than another, or that anything has existed in the past or is existing now or will exist in the future, he is simply making a mistake, because, in fact, all. such beliefs are false. This extremely paradoxical view was one of the two views which I said I thought. had been held about Time. And the other was a very different one. This second view admits that there is such a thing as Time; and that ever so many different things do exist in it, but it holds that all the things which ever exist in Time, and even, perhaps, Time itself, are, in some sense, mere Appearances—Appearances of something else, which does not exist in Time at all—something which has not, therefore, existed in the past, does not exist now, and will not exist in the future, but which yet does exist. or is real.—exists or is real ‘time-lessly’, to use a phrase which philosophers have invented to express this idea. Both these two views do, I think, present a very strange view of the Universe; and both, I think, might be said to contradict Common Sense. The first quite plainly does so, and I do not think anyone would dispute that it does. And the second might be said to do so also, because, I think, we do find it very difficult to conceive how anything could be truly said to exist or be real at all, if it neither exists now nor ever existed in the past nor will exist in the future: the notion of timeless. existence is certainly a very difficult one to grasp. Whatever exists at all, we should be inclined to say, must exist at some time. And I am not at all sure that we should not be right in saying this. But nevertheless there is, I think, an enormous difference between the two views, in respect of the degree. to which they contradict Common Sense. It is only the first which does quite plainly and flatly contradict an enormous proportion of our ordinary beliefs. We are constantly believing (and even in saying this, that we constantly. believe, I am, of course, presupposing that things do happen in Time—but still I think I may say we do constantly believe) that certain things do happen before others, and that some things are past and others present. And all these beliefs must be false, if the first view is true.

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