There Is Something Deficient In Our Idea Of Time

Three Levels Of Time

Off hand, I can think of two real world areas of relevance that the synchronic
structure of freedom speaks directly too. One is far removed from normal experience,
i.e., quantum effects, and the other is so close to experience that we ignore it
most of the time. It is to the latter that I will briefly direct my comments. If
my memory serves me correctly, I believe it was St. Augustine who said, "When I
do not think about time I know exactly what it is, but when I am asked to
describe it, I find that I know nothing about what it is." Temporality, as most
of us are aware, is a very peculiar phenomenon.

Time may be described on three levels. Theoretical physics (both quantum
mechanics and relativity theory) measures time in its physical aspect, that is,
"the t-coordinate is an undifferentiated continuum, and, if this coordinate is
`taken for real' as has been the tendency among many scientists and
philosophers, the familiar distinction between past, present and future, so
important in human affairs, comes to be regarded as a mere peculiarity of
consciousness." [Kenneth G. Denbigh, Three Concepts of Time, 1981, p. 4.] We
also encounter the concept of non-reversible time in the physical sciences. In
thermodynamics and in the biological sciences the arrow of time becomes
unidirectional. According to the second law of thermodynamics energy dissipates
while entropy (disorder) increases. In our consciousness of the everyday
succession of events we also experience a unidirectional arrow of time. We
cannot unsee, unhear, unknow, etc. our experience of the processes of perception
and cognition. So, we might ask, which time is real time? Conceivably there is
something deficient in our idea of time. Now let's look at time from the
perspective of freedom's synchronic dimension.