The layered concept of time has been explored by arts, sciences, and existential reflections. Applied philosophy, which offers real-life solutions to ontological issues, has tried to define various aspects of time, highlighting its perceptions and applications. In your opinion, what metaphysical problems can be solved by the philosophy of time?
Karl Pfeifer The primitive species known as Homo sapiens continues to toy with the concept of time travel without understanding the most basic laws of spacetime mechanics. Their belief that they can simply "jump" from one temporal point to another without recalibrating for planetary drift, solar orbit, and galactic expansion is, quite frankly, laughable.
We have documented countless cases of misplaced travelers through spacetime, some materializing inside planetary crusts, others scattered across the vacuum of space. A particularly amusing case involved a human attempting to travel "one second into the past," only to rematerialize 3,000 kilometers away due to Earth's rotation. The result? An unscheduled reentry into the Pacific Ocean.
This, of course, is why humans have never successfully established a functional time travel system. They always vanish. Some mistakenly believe they are "lost in time," but our forensic analysis suggests a different fate: Total disintegration due to misaligned spatiotemporal coordinates.
And yet, there are rumors among certain "human cults" that time travel isn’t just dangerous. It’s a cosmic deletion protocol. Their theory? That moving through time triggers a fundamental "error" in their perceived simulation, permanently removing them from existence. While highly unlikely, it is an amusing thought experiment.
Interestingly, no remains of these so-called time travelers have ever been found. No wreckage, no biological residue, no energy signatures. Not even the mystical "21 grams" they associate with consciousness.
Conclusion:
The humans are playing with forces they do not understand. We estimate it will take at least 1,200 more universal cycles before they grasp even the basics of temporal displacement. Until then, we advise strict non-interference, though monitoring their failures continues to be a source of great amusement.
End of Report. 🛸📡👽
Time is a very interesting concept, as even if we had enough of it, we get bored and want to be busy and not be aware of it passing falling to completely embrace the moment. It confusioning as it goes to define years (age) , how long one have lived, does it define how ones essence or spirit have lived?
The philosophy of time addresses several metaphysical problems by analyzing concepts such as the nature of temporal existence, the passage of time, and the structure of reality. One significant issue it tackles is the nature of existence over time, where theories like presentism assert that only present entities exist, denying the reality of past and future entities. This perspective contrasts with eternalism, which posits that past, present, and future events are equally real, thereby influencing our understanding of temporal ontology. Additionally, the philosophy of time explores causal paradoxes arising from the possibility of infinite causal chains, as illustrated by the Grim Reaper paradox, which challenges the coherence of continuous time and supports arguments for temporal finitism. By examining these and other temporal concepts, the philosophy of time seeks to resolve fundamental metaphysical questions about the structure of reality and our experience of temporal phenomena.
- Is there a philosophy of time compatible with relativity and quantum mechanics?: This article explores the compatibility of different philosophical theories of time with modern physics.
Article Is there a philosophy of time compatible with relativity and...
- Philosophy of Time: A Contemporary Introduction: This work provides an overview of current debates and theories in the philosophy of time.
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350395015_Philosophy_of_Time_A_Contemporary_Introduction
If in the thread question
“What metaphysical problems can be solved by the philosophy of time?
- the word “metaphysical” has the standard meaning, i.e. really the question would be as “What problems in ontologies of fundamental phenomena/nations , first of all in this case “Matter”, , “Consciousness”, “Space”, “Time”, “Energy”, “Information”, can be solved by the philosophy of time?, - then the completely scientific answer is as
- any these problems fundamentally cannot be solved in any case – by “philosophy of time”, or by whole mainstream philosophy at all, since in the mainstream all these phenomena/notions are fundamentally completely transcendent/uncertain/irrational - while at that really can be scientifically defined only together, all they are fundamentally interlinked.
The fundamental phenomena/notions above can be, and are, rigorously scientifically defined rather in detail only in the Shevchenko-Tokarevsky’s really philosophical 2007 “The Information as Absolute” conception, recent version of the basic paper see
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/363645560_The_Information_as_Absolute_-_2022_ed
Compact, but essentially clear and rather in detail introduction in the conception see in
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/387933457_A_response_to_question_What_is_the_The_Information_as_Absolute_conception
In the conception first of all it is rigorously proven that there exist nothing else than some informational patterns/systems of the patterns that are elements of the absolutely fundamental and absolutely infinite “Information” Set, The Set exists absolutely objectively, because of it fundamentally – logically - cannot be non-existent and so exists absolutely eternally, having no Beginning and no End;
- while the utmost general scientifically rigorous definition of the so absolutely fundamental phenomenon/notion “Information” is:
“Information is something that is constructed in accordance with the set/system of absolutely fundamental Rules, Possibilities, Quantities, etc. – the set/system “Logos” in the conception”
Including any, including human’s one, “Consciousness” is an [fundamentally different from informational system “Matter”] informational system, while “Space”, “Time”,, “Energy”, “Logical Rules”, etc. . are “Logos” elements.
SS post March 7 in https://www.researchgate.net/post/Why_arent_scientists_trying_to_come_up_with_alternative_theories_of_Gravity_as_a_universal_manifestation_beyond_Einsteins_General_Relativity/12 contains a few useful comments relating to what “space” and “time” are.
Cheers
Hello again, Amalya. Thank you for calling us to fun conversations.
As for this one, we created and recently shared Episode 1 of an animated series: Tales of Energia. The series in general, and this first episode, particularly, are very interested in the experience and idea of time. We play with how it shapes modern living, and upcoming episodes shall take us, among others, to how it shapes our experience and idea of justice, particularly modern criminal justice. We hope you can watch it and have fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hppgqlEZVOc.
Thank you all for sharing your valuable insights and resources, enriching the discussion with diverse perspectives. Marcos, thank you for sharing the episode—it was interesting. I would like to add my thoughts to the insights already shared.
Philosophy is not only an academic discipline but also a way of thinking, perceiving, analyzing, and, if possible, changing the world. Every aspect of human life—every simple thought, feeling, or notion—when reflected upon in a philosophical context, gains existential weight. It challenges the emptiness of superficial beliefs, the disillusionment of meaningless being, and the unglorified collapse of eternal values. When the ship of time is placed in the boundless ocean of philosophy, the temporal loses its fleeting brilliance, granting the laurel of existence to eternity.
In Being and Time, Martin Heidegger explores the transcendental layers of existence, highlighting the metaphysical essence of time and its meaningful role in the human condition. He views Being and Time as an ontological unity that transcends the boundary between the tangible and the intangible, becoming a cosmos of identity.
The concept of time, when viewed through the lens of temporality, is more connected to finitism, while in the context of infinitism, it refers to eternity. The essence of the past refers to retrospection, the future is related to prospection, and the present—"here and now," as Richard Bach would say—is linked to the immediate.
Although the value of information is undeniable as an epistemic dimension of time, its presence is not an absolute necessity. Time continues to act through its metaphysical agency even in nothingness, when there is no information, meaning, beginning, or end. Time is a metaphysical power which, depending on the person, can work for or against human existence.
Amalya Sukiasyan : Hi Amalya, I think that the concept if time (and space) depends on the kind of epistemology one holds and Hegel for the first time in history gave the most scientific view of time and space; which negates the concepts of not only of classical physics but also of modern (post-Einsteinian) physics; but is closely in line with revolutionary quantum physics discovered by the turn of the 20th century. Classical and Einsteinian physics have differing views of time (and space) within them; but quantum physics have wildly conflicting perspective of time and space, with the other two. Hegel’s views of time and space extends historical and ordinary human-level understanding of objective reality of time and space (ontology) from the far reaches of the microcosm of the quantum world to the macrocosm of the galaxies and their clusters.
Hegel divided epistemology into two, which he called: 1) “the view of understanding” (or metaphysics) and 2) “the view of reason” or dialectics. 1) Metaphysics for Hegel is perceptual; given by ordinary thought and causality. This concerns with instant and the crude static pictures (images) in our brain created through perception (senses) giving rise to ordinary, instinctive (unprocessed) thought of things and events of time in objective reality. 2) Reason or Dialectics, for Hegel is conceptual - the subjective side or “thinking thought” in which our brain processes and refines the ordinary thought through rational judgment for a better positive knowledge. For Hegel, “Truth in philosophy means that concepts and external reality corresponds”.
I think that Hegel’s dialectical philosophy of space and time is a revolutionary concept, which is sharply different from previous or modern (post-Einsteinian) dominant view of philosophy and physics. For Hegel, space and time are abstract (thought) entities, which have the attribute of only quantity (infinite); but no perceivable attribute of quality, characteristics of physical existence. But abstract space and time stand in mutual and dialectical contradiction; the resolution of that contradiction results in (particulate) atomic matter and motion – the REAL manifestation of abstract space and time. For dialectics, motion is an integral part matter (Leibniz’s vis viva); motion (the relation of time and space) is the mode of existence of matter - there can be no matter without motion and no motion without matter.
The dialectical concept of time (and space) goes back to Epicurus, who asserted that time and space are infinite; who also inveighed against his near contemporary materialist Aristotle’s metaphysical concept of time and space and causality-based determinism, which physics followed up to the present time. Before Aristotle, Greek idealism did not think much about reality, time and space, because it only was concerned with the universals (ideas and mathematical form); which exist in a realm beyond time and space.
In my view, Epicurus in fact anticipated modern quantum electrodynamics; which Hegel gave a more concrete form in his philosophy of space and time; even before the actual discovery of the quantum phenomena. I made some humble efforts to extend the dialectical concept of “time and space” to quantum electrodynamics. This also challenges the classical and post Einsteinian concepts of so-called 4-dimensional “spacetime” (with physical, material, dynamic etc. attributes!). The dialectical view of space and time by extension leads to a New Physics; negating modern mainstream theoretical physics and cosmology. Please see the following representative publications:
The Philosophy of Space-Time: Whence Cometh "Matter" and "Motion"?: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328359746_The_Philosophy_of_Space-Time_Whence_Cometh_Matter_and_Motion
The Limits of Mathematics/The Infinite: http://www.e-journal.org.uk/shape/papers/Special%2064.pdf
New Physics – The Negation of Einstein’s Theories of Relativity. JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN PHYSICS, 22, 54–61. https://doi.org/10.24297/jap.v22i.9594
What is Light, Really? A Quantum Dialectical View. Semantic scholar: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/What-is-Light%2C-Really-A-Quantum-Dialectical-View-Abdul/9652dee62901f5ab9289cb4498f10fd01869181b
Hi Abdul Malek, thank you for sharing your valuable insights. The concept of time and space crosses the mysterious spheres of eternity and infinity, challenging the essence of human knowledge and turning earthly perceptions into cosmic reflections. Various philosophers, physicists, and cognitive thinkers have expressed their multifaceted views on the meaning of time, matter, evolution, and other cosmological dimensions. Their perspectives, while scientifically grounded, have been differentiated by objectivity and subjectivity, creating influential theories and astrophysical guidelines to better understand the universe.
Hegel's philosophical understandings, as expressions of evolutionary findings, have challenged some conventional beliefs and introduced a new way of thinking. Albert Einstein’s theories were groundbreaking contributions to science, illuminating the epistemic darkness of the universe.
Since life is characterized by its dynamic, not static, nature, the definitive truth may not be easily found and will likely be explored over centuries, or even millennia.
Carmen Wrede When I responded to the question, "what metaphysical problems can be solved by the philosophy of time?" with my answer "the coherence or incoherence of time travel", I had two ideas in mind: (i) The philosophy of time, or more generally philosophical analysis, might show standard scifi conceptions of backwards time travel to ensnare us in contradictions (e.g. grandfather and other paradoxes), whereas (ii) forwards time travel of certain sorts might be shown to be consistent with relativity (e.g. time dilation effects). Multi-dimensional time travel models1 might be a way around some of the difficulties with backwards time travel. The so-called time travel envisaged by Hilary Putnam in "It ain't necessariy so", based on Feynman diagrams2, 3, seems more of a suggested notational convenience (tantamount to simplifying one's equations by allowing negative values of t ) rather than a real physical possibility.
I fear the so-called "documented cases" you mention are just products of fanciful speculation and imagination rather than authoritative reportage.
_______________
1 https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/43379
2 https://weinstein.quora.com/Time-Travel-in-Feynman-Diagrams
3 https://philpapers.org/rec/PUTIAN
Karl Pfeifer One never knows... maybe they are speculations or imaginations... maybe they are not.
But jokes aside: Normally we think we might just turn back time and that's it. But maybe it is a bit more ... not complicated, but different. Already space seems to be geometrical different from what physics assumes. But there is also so much more beauty in it that really astonishes me when I try to mathematically grasp it.
Yesterday we were starting to mathematically describe the smallest part of space where things meet and start. And I am just wondering what's behind that space. Because as far as I can overlook and understand there must be something like a tiny black hole in spacetime... And I am wondering if this marks the end of spacetime, like a pixel, that does restrict reality, or if there is something beyond it, maybe something smaller or something like a subspace.
There is so much more we can look at, things we just start to understand.
The thread question is really rigorously scientifically answered in SS post on page 1; after which a few typical mainstream philosophical posts appeared, i.e. when the posters have only some transcendent “understanding” of what is the absolutely fundamental penomeno/notion “Time”, which, again, can be, and is, really rigorously scientifically defined only in framework of the SS&VT really philosophical 2007 “The Information as Absolute” conception, More see the pointed SS post and links in the posts; here a couple of notes else, say, to
“…Various philosophers, physicists, and cognitive thinkers have expressed their multifaceted views on the meaning of time, matter, evolution, and other cosmological dimensions. Their perspectives, …”
- yeah, that quite correct, there exist innumerous mainstream publications about what is “time”. However, correspondingly, this [the publications are]
“….while scientifically grounded, …”
- is principally wrong – there can be only one scientific definition of anything, including “time”, if there are more than one definition, than at least one of them is wrong – and the numerous mainstream definitions are all wrong.
Really the rigorous scientific definition of “Time/time” occupies a couple of pages - see the SS post and the link to the conception.
A note else to
“…The so-called time travel envisaged by Hilary Putnam in "It ain't necessariy so", based on Feynman diagrams2, 3, seems more of a suggested notational convenience (tantamount to simplifying one's equations by allowing negative values of t ) rather than a real physical possibility.…”
- the “motion back in time” in Feynman diagrams is indeed really a transcendent ad hoc postulate in QFTs, since in mainstream physics the phenomena/notiosn “Time/time” and “Space/space” are also completely transcendent, and so, beside this, in the mainstream a lot of transcendent “properties and effects” of the space/time/spacetime are discovered.
Including in this case since in the physics Matter’s spacetime is 4D one with metrics (t,X,Y,Z)), while really Matter’s fundamentally absolute, fundamentally flat, fundamentally continuous, and fundamentally “Cartesian”, spacetime has [5]4D metrics (cτ,X,Y,Z,ct), where cτ,X,Y,Z, are 4 space dimensions, ct is the time dimension.
At that [see SS&VT Planck scale informational physical model ] antiparticles really move back in the space cτ-dimensions, which is erroneously postulated in the mainstream as the time dimension – just so application of the mystic Feynman rule in theory mostly is well adequate to the reality, SS posts in
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Time-nonorientable_Morris-Thorne_wormhole_as_a_possible_explanation_for_Nolans_Tenet#view=67e65b0d6d9b467b8106a596 , and
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_we_say_spacetime_is_only_operationally_defined_ie_that_which_guaranrees_covariance_of_physical_laws_in_different_reference_systems
- are relevant in this case.
Cheers
Thank you for sharing your insights. Philosophy gives ethical, existential, and cognitive weight to everything it engages with.
When time is viewed in a philosophical context, metaphysical dimensions of life become paths toward brightened consciousness, meaning, and ontological truth.
The series of 6 reDzennn comments June 22, 23, 24, 25, 26,27; 5 ,4 , 4, 1, 5, 3 passages , in comments line [“Load comments” in the article bottom] of phys.org article “New theory proposes time has three dimensions, with space as a secondary effect”
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-theory-dimensions-space-secondary-effect.html,
- where also a number of other fundamental points that are necessary in this case are clarified, since any point, including “what is time” cannot be clarified without clarifications of all ones;
- is well relevant to this thread question. The series should be read as a whole, and from the first comment.
Cheers
Thank you for your response and for sharing the reading suggestions.
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