Saturday, September 5, 2009
Common Notions of Time and Space
With Time and Space both dynamic processes, one traditional common notion of 'Time', as 'passage', fails to distinguish Time from Space. Probably the other most common meaning of 'Time' is the Aristotelian one, 'the measure of Motion', namely what clocks and calendars provide. Now, while these are often casually thought to present a succession of milestones, such milestones are actually privileged punctuations of cyclical movements, e. g. the rotation of clock hands, that are cumulative as well, e. g. as the second hand returns to 12, the minute hand moves forward. This pattern of accumulating return is analogous to the Formaterial Temporal pattern of the terminating and retention of motions in the moment of Reflection. On the other hand, two common usages of 'Space' together almost precisely express its essence. 'Outer Space', referring to what is beyond the Earth, and 'Give me my space', a request for room to move, together capture the notion of an Outsideness that is rooted in Locomotility. The easy hypostasization of these, i. e. Space as circumambience, only emphasizes how derivative the further constructions of Geometrical Space are. The three common 'dimensions' of 'Space', width, height, and depth, are products of a useful but ultimately arbitrary subdivision of already hypostasized 'Space', based on a rectangularization that seems to abstract from the side-to-side, foot-to-head, and front-to-back characteristics of the hypostasized human 'Body'. Directionality is the product of further subdivision. Now, hypostasization, in general, entails the bringing to a close of a motion, which is what occurs in Temporisation. In other words, Geometrical 'Space' is a Spatio-Temporal hybrid.
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