Reality of absolute time

Pierre Gassendi

pp. 195-201

in: Milič Čapek (ed), The concepts of space and time, Berlin, Springer, 1976

Abstract

It seems that the Stoics have been more perceptive than Epicurus when they held that time is something incorporeal which is understood to exist by itself and not as something which accidentally pertains to things in the sense that there would be no time without things which endure in it or at least without our mind imagining them to endure. We comprehend that even before there were any things time flowed; and from this we acknowledge that they could have been created by God earlier than they had been created — that is either a short time or long time or even eternal time earlier. Even now, while they exist, we understand that time flows in the same tenor as it flowed before; and if God reduced the whole universe to nothing, we comprehend that time will still flow; and we also understand that if God would wish to recreate the universe, time still would flow in the interval between its destruction and recreation. There is a difficulty for us here, since, although we apparently speak appropriately and accurately and we seem to comprehend what we are speaking of when we say that "time flows", "time passes", "time follows", "time came near", "time will come", etc., yet we hesitate, and in attempting to clarify the meaning of "flow", "passage", "coming" etc. of time, we notice that this was a mere metaphorical way of speaking; we cannot point out with a finger the flow of time in the way we point out the flow of water.