TIME
The two previous lectures of this course have been mainly critical. In
the present lecture I propose to enter upon a survey of the kinds of
entities which are posited for knowledge in sense-awareness. My purpose
is to investigate the sorts of relations which these entities of various
kinds can bear to each other. A classification of natural entities is
the beginning of natural philosophy. To-day we commence with the
consideration of Time.
In the first place there is posited for us a general fact: namely,
something is going on; there is an occurrence for definition.
This general fact at once yields for our apprehension two factors, which
I will name, the 'discerned' and the 'discernible.' The discerned is
comprised of those elements of the general fact which are discriminated
with their own individual peculiarities. It is the field directly
perceived. But the entities of this field have relations to other
entities which are not particularly discriminated in this individual
way. These other entities are known merely as the relata in relation to
the entities of the discerned field. Such an entity is merely a
'something' which has such-and-such definite relations to some definite
entity or entities in the discerned field. As being thus related, they
are--owing to the particular character of these relations--known as
elements of the general fact which is going on. But we are not aware of
them except as entities fulfilling the functions of relata in these
relations.
Thus the complete general fact, posited as occurring, comprises both
sets of entities, namely the entities perceived in their own
individuality and other entities merely apprehended as relata without
further definition. This complete general fact is the discernible and it
comprises the discerned. The discernible is all nature as disclosed in
that sense-awareness, and extends beyond and comprises all of nature as
actually discriminated or discerned in that sense-awareness. The
discerning or discrimination of nature is a peculiar awareness of
special factors in nature in respect to their peculiar characters. But
the factors in nature of which we have this peculiar sense-awareness are
known as not comprising all the factors which together form the whole
complex of related entities within the general fact there for
discernment. This peculiarity of knowledge is what I call its
unexhaustive character. This character may be metaphorically described
by the statement that nature as perceived always has a ragged edge. For
example, there is a world beyond the room to which our sight is confined
known to us as completing the space-relations of the entities discerned
within the room. The junction of the interior world of the room with the
exterior world beyond is never sharp. Sounds and subtler factors
disclosed in sense-awareness float in from the outside. Every type of
sense has its own set of discriminated entities which are known to be
relata in relation with entities not discriminated by that sense. For
example we see something which we do not touch and we touch something
which we do not see, and we have a general sense of the space-relations
between the entity disclosed in sight and the entity disclosed in touch.
Thus in the first place each of these two entities is known as a relatum
in a general system of space-relations and in the second place the
particular mutual relation of these two entities as related to each
other in this general system is determined. But the general system of
space-relations relating the entity discriminated by sight with that
discriminated by sight is not dependent on the peculiar character of the
other entity as reported by the alternative sense. For example, the
space-relations of the thing seen would have necessitated an entity as a
relatum in the place of the thing touched even although certain elements
of its character had not been disclosed by touch. Thus apart from the
touch an entity with a certain specific relation to the thing seen would
have been disclosed by sense-awareness but not otherwise discriminated
in respect to its individual character. An entity merely known as
spatially related to some discerned entity is what we mean by the bare
idea of 'place.' The concept of place marks the disclosure in
sense-awareness of entities in nature known merely by their spatial
relations to discerned entities. It is the disclosure of the discernible
by means of its relations to the discerned.
This disclosure of an entity as a relatum without further specific
discrimination of quality is the basis of our concept of significance.
In the above example the thing seen was significant, in that it
disclosed its spatial relations to other entities not necessarily
otherwise entering into consciousness. Thus significance is relatedness,
but it is relatedness with the emphasis on one end only of the relation.
For the sake of simplicity I have confined the argument to spatial
relations; but the same considerations apply to temporal relations. The
concept of 'period of time' marks the disclosure in sense-awareness of
entities in nature known merely by their temporal relations to
discerned entities. Still further, this separation of the ideas of space
and time has merely been adopted for the sake of gaining simplicity of
exposition by conformity to current language. What we discern is the
specific character of a place through a period of time. This is what I
mean by an 'event.' We discern some specific character of an event. But
in discerning an event we are also aware of its significance as a
relatum in the structure of events. This structure of events is the
complex of events as related by the two relations of extension and
cogredience. The most simple expression of the properties of this
structure are to be found in our spatial and temporal relations. A
discerned event is known as related in this structure to other events
whose specific characters are otherwise not disclosed in that immediate
awareness except so far as that they are relata within the structure.
The disclosure in sense-awareness of the structure of events classifies
events into those which are discerned in respect to some further
individual character and those which are not otherwise disclosed except
as elements of the structure. These signified events must include events
in the remote past as well as events in the future. We are aware of
these as the far off periods of unbounded time. But there is another
classification of events which is also inherent in sense-awareness.
These are the events which share the immediacy of the immediately
present discerned events. These are the events whose characters together
with those of the discerned events comprise all nature present for
discernment. They form the complete general fact which is all nature now
present as disclosed in that sense-awareness. It is in this second
classification of events that the differentiation of space from time
takes its origin. The germ of space is to be found in the mutual
relations of events within the immediate general fact which is all
nature now discernible, namely within the one event which is the
totality of present nature. The relations of other events to this
totality of nature form the texture of time.
The unity of this general present fact is expressed by the concept of
simultaneity. The general fact is the whole simultaneous occurrence of
nature which is now for sense-awareness. This general fact is what I
have called the discernible. But in future I will call it a 'duration,'
meaning thereby a certain whole of nature which is limited only by the
property of being a simultaneity. Further in obedience to the principle
of comprising within nature the whole terminus of sense-awareness,
simultaneity must not be conceived as an irrelevant mental concept
imposed upon nature. Our sense-awareness posits for immediate
discernment a certain whole, here called a 'duration'; thus a duration
is a definite natural entity. A duration is discriminated as a complex
of partial events, and the natural entities which are components of this
complex are thereby said to be 'simultaneous with this duration.' Also
in a derivative sense they are simultaneous with each other in respect
to this duration. Thus simultaneity is a definite natural relation. The
word 'duration' is perhaps unfortunate in so far as it suggests a mere
abstract stretch of time. This is not what I mean. A duration is a
concrete slab of nature limited by simultaneity which is an essential
factor disclosed in sense-awareness.
Nature is a process. As in the case of everything directly exhibited in
sense-awareness, there can be no explanation of this characteristic of
nature. All that can be done is to use language which may speculatively
demonstrate it, and also to express the relation of this factor in
nature to other factors.
It is an exhibition of the process of nature that each duration happens
and passes. The process of nature can also be termed the passage of
nature. I definitely refrain at this stage from using the word 'time,'
since the measurable time of science and of civilised life generally
merely exhibits some aspects of the more fundamental fact of the passage
of nature. I believe that in this doctrine I am in full accord with
Bergson, though he uses 'time' for the fundamental fact which I call the
'passage of nature.' Also the passage of nature is exhibited equally in
spatial transition as well as in temporal transition. It is in virtue of
its passage that nature is always moving on. It is involved in the
meaning of this property of 'moving on' that not only is any act of
sense-awareness just that act and no other, but the terminus of each act
is also unique and is the terminus of no other act. Sense-awareness
seizes its only chance and presents for knowledge something which is for
it alone.
There are two senses in which the terminus of sense-awareness is unique.
It is unique for the sense-awareness of an individual mind and it is
unique for the sense-awareness of all minds which are operating under
natural conditions. There is an important distinction between the two
cases. (i) For one mind not only is the discerned component of the
general fact exhibited in any act of sense-awareness distinct from the
discerned component of the general fact exhibited in any other act of
sense-awareness of that mind, but the two corresponding durations which
are respectively related by simultaneity to the two discerned components
are necessarily distinct. This is an exhibition of the temporal passage
of nature; namely, one duration has passed into the other. Thus not only
is the passage of nature an essential character of nature in its _role_
of the terminus of sense-awareness, but it is also essential for
sense-awareness in itself. It is this truth which makes time appear to
extend beyond nature. But what extends beyond nature to mind is not the
serial and measurable time, which exhibits merely the character of
passage in nature, but the quality of passage itself which is in no way
measurable except so far as it obtains in nature. That is to say,
'passage' is not measurable except as it occurs in nature in connexion
with extension. In passage we reach a connexion of nature with the
ultimate metaphysical reality. The quality of passage in durations is a
particular exhibition in nature of a quality which extends beyond
nature. For example passage is a quality not only of nature, which is
the thing known, but also of sense-awareness which is the procedure of
knowing. Durations have all the reality that nature has, though what
that may be we need not now determine. The measurableness of time is
derivative from the properties of durations. So also is the serial
character of time. We shall find that there are in nature competing
serial time-systems derived from different families of durations. These
are a peculiarity of the character of passage as it is found in nature.
This character has the reality of nature, but we must not necessarily
transfer natural time to extra-natural entities. (ii) For two minds, the
discerned components of the general facts exhibited in their respective
acts of sense-awareness must be different. For each mind, in its
awareness of nature is aware of a certain complex of related natural
entities in their relations to the living body as a focus. But the
associated durations may be identical. Here we are touching on that
character of the passage nature which issues in the spatial relations of
simultaneous bodies. This possible identity of the durations in the case
of the sense-awareness of distinct minds is what binds into one nature
the private experiences of sentient beings. We are here considering the
spatial side of the passage of nature. Passage in this aspect of it also
seems to extend beyond nature to mind.
It is important to distinguish simultaneity from instantaneousness. I
lay no stress on the mere current usage of the two terms. There are two
concepts which I want to distinguish, and one I call simultaneity and
the other instantaneousness. I hope that the words are judiciously
chosen; but it really does not matter so long as I succeed in explaining
my meaning. Simultaneity is the property of a group of natural elements
which in some sense are components of a duration. A duration can be all
nature present as the immediate fact posited by sense-awareness. A
duration retains within itself the passage of nature. There are within
it antecedents and consequents which are also durations which may be the
complete specious presents of quicker consciousnesses. In other words a
duration retains temporal thickness. Any concept of all nature as
immediately known is always a concept of some duration though it may be
enlarged in its temporal thickness beyond the possible specious present
of any being known to us as existing within nature. Thus simultaneity is
an ultimate factor in nature, immediate for sense-awareness.
Instantaneousness is a complex logical concept of a procedure in thought
by which constructed logical entities are produced for the sake of the
simple expression in thought of properties of nature. Instantaneousness
is the concept of all nature at an instant, where an instant is
conceived as deprived of all temporal extension. For example we conceive
of the distribution of matter in space at an instant. This is a very
useful concept in science especially in applied mathematics; but it is a
very complex idea so far as concerns its connexions with the immediate
facts of sense-awareness. There is no such thing as nature at an instant
posited by sense-awareness. What sense-awareness delivers over for
knowledge is nature through a period. Accordingly nature at an instant,
since it is not itself a natural entity, must be defined in terms of
genuine natural entities. Unless we do so, our science, which employs
the concept of instantaneous nature, must abandon all claim to be
founded upon observation.
I will use the term 'moment' to mean 'all nature at an instant.' A
moment, in the sense in which the term is here used, has no temporal
extension, and is in this respect to be contrasted with a duration which
has such extension. What is directly yielded to our knowledge by
sense-awareness is a duration. Accordingly we have now to explain how
moments are derived from durations, and also to explain the purpose
served by their introduction.
A moment is a limit to which we approach as we confine attention to
durations of minimum extension. Natural relations among the ingredients
of a duration gain in complexity as we consider durations of increasing
temporal extension. Accordingly there is an approach to ideal simplicity
as we approach an ideal diminution of extension.
The word 'limit' has a precise signification in the logic of number and
even in the logic of non-numerical one-dimensional series. As used here
it is so far a mere metaphor, and it is necessary to explain directly
the concept which it is meant to indicate.
Durations can have the two-termed relational property of extending one
over the other. Thus the duration which is all nature during a certain
minute extends over the duration which is all nature during the
30th second of that minute. This relation of 'extending
over'--'extension' as I shall call it--is a fundamental natural relation
whose field comprises more than durations. It is a relation which two
limited events can have to each other. Furthermore as holding between
durations the relation appears to refer to the purely temporal
extension. I shall however maintain that the same relation of extension
lies at the base both of temporal and spatial extension. This discussion
can be postponed; and for the present we are simply concerned with the
relation of extension as it occurs in its temporal aspect for the
limited field of durations.
The concept of extension exhibits in thought one side of the ultimate
passage of nature. This relation holds because of the special character
which passage assumes in nature; it is the relation which in the case of
durations expresses the properties of 'passing over.' Thus the duration
which was one definite minute passed over the duration which was its
30th second. The duration of the 30th second was part of the duration of
the minute. I shall use the terms 'whole' and 'part' exclusively in this
sense, that the 'part' is an event which is extended over by the other
event which is the 'whole.' Thus in my nomenclature 'whole' and 'part'
refer exclusively to this fundamental relation of extension; and
accordingly in this technical usage only events can be either wholes or
parts.
The continuity of nature arises from extension. Every event extends over
other events, and every event is extended over by other events. Thus in
the special case of durations which are now the only events directly
under consideration, every duration is part of other durations; and
every duration has other durations which are parts of it. Accordingly
there are no maximum durations and no minimum durations. Thus there is
no atomic structure of durations, and the perfect definition of a
duration, so as to mark out its individuality and distinguish it from
highly analogous durations over which it is passing, or which are
passing over it, is an arbitrary postulate of thought. Sense-awareness
posits durations as factors in nature but does not clearly enable
thought to use it as distinguishing the separate individualities of the
entities of an allied group of slightly differing durations. This is one
instance of the indeterminateness of sense-awareness. Exactness is an
ideal of thought, and is only realised in experience by the selection of
a route of approximation.
The absence of maximum and minimum durations does not exhaust the
properties of nature which make up its continuity. The passage of nature
involves the existence of a family of durations. When two durations
belong to the same family either one contains the other, or they overlap
each other in a subordinate duration without either containing the
other; or they are completely separate. The excluded case is that of
durations overlapping in finite events but not containing a third
duration as a common part.
It is evident that the relation of extension is transitive; namely as
applied to durations, if duration A is part of duration B, and
duration B is part of duration C, then A is part of C. Thus the
first two cases may be combined into one and we can say that two
durations which belong to the same family _either_ are such that there
are durations which are parts of both _or_ are completely separate.
Furthermore the converse of this proposition holds; namely, if two
durations have other durations which are parts of both _or_ if the two
durations are completely separate, then they belong to the same family.
The further characteristics of the continuity of nature--so far as
durations are concerned--which has not yet been formulated arises in
connexion with a family of durations. It can be stated in this way:
There are durations which contain as parts any two durations of the same
family. For example a week contains as parts any two of its days. It is
evident that a containing duration satisfies the conditions for
belonging to the same family as the two contained durations.
We are now prepared to proceed to the definition of a moment of time.
Consider a set of durations all taken from the same family. Let it have
the following properties: (i) of any two members of the set one contains
the other as a part, and (ii) there is no duration which is a common
part of every member of the set.
Now the relation of whole and part is asymmetrical; and by this I mean
that if A is part of B, then B is not part of A. Also we have
already noted that the relation is transitive. Accordingly we can easily
see that the durations of any set with the properties just enumerated
must be arranged in a one-dimensional serial order in which as we
descend the series we progressively reach durations of smaller and
smaller temporal extension. The series may start with any arbitrarily
assumed duration of any temporal extension, but in descending the
series the temporal extension progressively contracts and the successive
durations are packed one within the other like the nest of boxes of a
Chinese toy. But the set differs from the toy in this particular: the
toy has a smallest box which forms the end box of its series; but the
set of durations can have no smallest duration nor can it converge
towards a duration as its limit. For the parts either of the end
duration or of the limit would be parts of all the durations of the set
and thus the second condition for the set would be violated.
I will call such a set of durations an 'abstractive set' of durations.
It is evident that an abstractive set as we pass along it converges to
the ideal of all nature with no temporal extension, namely, to the ideal
of all nature at an instant. But this ideal is in fact the ideal of a
nonentity. What the abstractive set is in fact doing is to guide thought
to the consideration of the progressive simplicity of natural relations
as we progressively diminish the temporal extension of the duration
considered. Now the whole point of the procedure is that the
quantitative expressions of these natural properties do converge to
limits though the abstractive set does not converge to any limiting
duration. The laws relating these quantitative limits are the laws of
nature 'at an instant,' although in truth there is no nature at an
instant and there is only the abstractive set. Thus an abstractive set
is effectively the entity meant when we consider an instant of time
without temporal extension. It subserves all the necessary purposes of
giving a definite meaning to the concept of the properties of nature at
an instant. I fully agree that this concept is fundamental in the
expression of physical science. The difficulty is to express our
meaning in terms of the immediate deliverances of sense-awareness, and I
offer the above explanation as a complete solution of the problem.
In this explanation a moment is the set of natural properties reached by
a route of approximation. An abstractive series is a route of
approximation. There are different routes of approximation to the same
limiting set of the properties of nature. In other words there are
different abstractive sets which are to be regarded as routes of
approximation to the same moment. Accordingly there is a certain amount
of technical detail necessary in explaining the relations of such
abstractive sets with the same convergence and in guarding against
possible exceptional cases. Such details are not suitable for exposition
in these lectures, and I have dealt with them fully elsewhere[5].
[5] Cf. _An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Natural Knowledge_,
Cambridge University Press, 1919.
It is more convenient for technical purposes to look on a moment as
being the class of all abstractive sets of durations with the same
convergence. With this definition (provided that we can successfully
explain what we mean by the 'same convergence' apart from a detailed
knowledge of the set of natural properties arrived at by approximation)
a moment is merely a class of sets of durations whose relations of
extension in respect to each other have certain definite peculiarities.
We may term these connexions of the component durations the 'extrinsic'
properties of a moment; the 'intrinsic' properties of the moment are the
properties of nature arrived at as a limit as we proceed along any one
of its abstractive sets. These are the properties of nature 'at that
moment,' or 'at that instant.'
The durations which enter into the composition of a moment all belong to
one family. Thus there is one family of moments corresponding to one
family of durations. Also if we take two moments of the same family,
among the durations which enter into the composition of one moment the
smaller durations are completely separated from the smaller durations
which enter into the composition of the other moment. Thus the two
moments in their intrinsic properties must exhibit the limits of
completely different states of nature. In this sense the two moments are
completely separated. I will call two moments of the same family
'parallel.'
Corresponding to each duration there are two moments of the associated
family of moments which are the boundary moments of that duration. A
'boundary moment' of a duration can be defined in this way. There are
durations of the same family as the given duration which overlap it but
are not contained in it. Consider an abstractive set of such durations.
Such a set defines a moment which is just as much without the duration
as within it. Such a moment is a boundary moment of the duration. Also
we call upon our sense-awareness of the passage of nature to inform us
that there are two such boundary moments, namely the earlier one and the
later one. We will call them the initial and the final boundaries.
There are also moments of the same family such that the shorter
durations in their composition are entirely separated from the given
duration. Such moments will be said to lie 'outside' the given duration.
Again other moments of the family are such that the shorter durations in
their composition are parts of the given duration. Such moments are said
to lie 'within' the given duration or to 'inhere' in it. The whole
family of parallel moments is accounted for in this way by reference to
any given duration of the associated family of durations. Namely, there
are moments of the family which lie without the given duration, there
are the two moments which are the boundary moments of the given
duration, and the moments which lie within the given duration.
Furthermore any two moments of the same family are the boundary moments
of some one duration of the associated family of durations.
It is now possible to define the serial relation of temporal order among
the moments of a family. For let A and C be any two moments of the
family, these moments are the boundary moments of one duration d of
the associated family, and any moment B which lies within the duration
d will be said to lie between the moments A and C. Thus the
three-termed relation of 'lying-between' as relating three moments A,
B, and C is completely defined. Also our knowledge of the passage of
nature assures us that this relation distributes the moments of the
family into a serial order. I abstain from enumerating the definite
properties which secure this result, I have enumerated them in my
recently published book[6] to which I have already referred. Furthermore
the passage of nature enables us to know that one direction along the
series corresponds to passage into the future and the other direction
corresponds to retrogression towards the past.
[6] Cf. _Enquiry_.
Such an ordered series of moments is what we mean by time defined as a
series. Each element of the series exhibits an instantaneous state of
nature. Evidently this serial time is the result of an intellectual
process of abstraction. What I have done is to give precise definitions
of the procedure by which the abstraction is effected. This procedure is
merely a particular case of the general method which in my book I name
the 'method of extensive abstraction.' This serial time is evidently not
the very passage of nature itself. It exhibits some of the natural
properties which flow from it. The state of nature 'at a moment' has
evidently lost this ultimate quality of passage. Also the temporal
series of moments only retains it as an extrinsic relation of entities
and not as the outcome of the essential being of the terms of the
series.
Nothing has yet been said as to the measurement of time. Such
measurement does not follow from the mere serial property of time; it
requires a theory of congruence which will be considered in a later
lecture.
In estimating the adequacy of this definition of the temporal series as
a formulation of experience it is necessary to discriminate between the
crude deliverance of sense-awareness and our intellectual theories. The
lapse of time is a measurable serial quantity. The whole of scientific
theory depends on this assumption and any theory of time which fails to
provide such a measurable series stands self-condemned as unable to
account for the most salient fact in experience. Our difficulties only
begin when we ask what it is that is measured. It is evidently something
so fundamental in experience that we can hardly stand back from it and
hold it apart so as to view it in its own proportions.
We have first to make up our minds whether time is to be found in nature
or nature is to be found in time. The difficulty of the latter
alternative--namely of making time prior to nature--is that time then
becomes a metaphysical enigma. What sort of entities are its instants
or its periods? The dissociation of time from events discloses to our
immediate inspection that the attempt to set up time as an independent
terminus for knowledge is like the effort to find substance in a shadow.
There is time because there are happenings, and apart from happenings
there is nothing.
It is necessary however to make a distinction. In some sense time
extends beyond nature. It is not true that a timeless sense-awareness
and a timeless thought combine to contemplate a timeful nature.
Sense-awareness and thought are themselves processes as well as their
termini in nature. In other words there is a passage of sense-awareness
and a passage of thought. Thus the reign of the quality of passage
extends beyond nature. But now the distinction arises between passage
which is fundamental and the temporal series which is a logical
abstraction representing some of the properties of nature. A temporal
series, as we have defined it, represents merely certain properties of a
family of durations--properties indeed which durations only possess
because of their partaking of the character of passage, but on the other
hand properties which only durations do possess. Accordingly time in the
sense of a measurable temporal series is a character of nature only, and
does not extend to the processes of thought and of sense-awareness
except by a correlation of these processes with the temporal series
implicated in their procedures.
So far the passage of nature has been considered in connexion with the
passage of durations; and in this connexion it is peculiarly associated
with temporal series. We must remember however that the character of
passage is peculiarly associated with the extension of events, and that
from this extension spatial transition arises just as much as temporal
transition. The discussion of this point is reserved for a later lecture
but it is necessary to remember it now that we are proceeding to discuss
the application of the concept of passage beyond nature, otherwise we
shall have too narrow an idea of the essence of passage.
It is necessary to dwell on the subject of sense-awareness in this
connexion as an example of the way in which time concerns mind, although
measurable time is a mere abstract from nature and nature is closed to
mind.
Consider sense-awareness--not its terminus which is nature, but
sense-awareness in itself as a procedure of mind. Sense-awareness is a
relation of mind to nature. Accordingly we are now considering mind as a
relatum in sense-awareness. For mind there is the immediate
sense-awareness and there is memory. The distinction between memory and
the present immediacy has a double bearing. On the one hand it discloses
that mind is not impartially aware of all those natural durations to
which it is related by awareness. Its awareness shares in the passage of
nature. We can imagine a being whose awareness, conceived as his private
possession, suffers no transition, although the terminus of his
awareness is our own transient nature. There is no essential reason why
memory should not be raised to the vividness of the present fact; and
then from the side of mind, What is the difference between the present
and the past? Yet with this hypothesis we can also suppose that the
vivid remembrance and the present fact are posited in awareness as in
their temporal serial order. Accordingly we must admit that though we
can imagine that mind in the operation of sense-awareness might be free
from any character of passage, yet in point of fact our experience of
sense-awareness exhibits our minds as partaking in this character.
On the other hand the mere fact of memory is an escape from transience.
In memory the past is present. It is not present as overleaping the
temporal succession of nature, but it is present as an immediate fact
for the mind. Accordingly memory is a disengagement of the mind from the
mere passage of nature; for what has passed for nature has not passed
for mind.
Furthermore the distinction between memory and the immediate present is
not so clear as it is conventional to suppose. There is an intellectual
theory of time as a moving knife-edge, exhibiting a present fact without
temporal extension. This theory arises from the concept of an ideal
exactitude of observation. Astronomical observations are successively
refined to be exact to tenths, to hundredths, and to thousandths of
seconds. But the final refinements are arrived at by a system of
averaging, and even then present us with a stretch of time as a margin
of error. Here error is merely a conventional term to express the fact
that the character of experience does not accord with the ideal of
thought. I have already explained how the concept of a moment
conciliates the observed fact with this ideal; namely, there is a
limiting simplicity in the quantitative expression of the properties of
durations, which is arrived at by considering any one of the abstractive
sets included in the moment. In other words the extrinsic character of
the moment as an aggregate of durations has associated with it the
intrinsic character of the moment which is the limiting expression of
natural properties.
Thus the character of a moment and the ideal of exactness which it
enshrines do not in any way weaken the position that the ultimate
terminus of awareness is a duration with temporal thickness. This
immediate duration is not clearly marked out for our apprehension. Its
earlier boundary is blurred by a fading into memory, and its later
boundary is blurred by an emergence from anticipation. There is no sharp
distinction either between memory and the present immediacy or between
the present immediacy and anticipation. The present is a wavering
breadth of boundary between the two extremes. Thus our own
sense-awareness with its extended present has some of the character of
the sense-awareness of the imaginary being whose mind was free from
passage and who contemplated all nature as an immediate fact. Our own
present has its antecedents and its consequents, and for the imaginary
being all nature has its antecedent and its consequent durations. Thus
the only difference in this respect between us and the imaginary being
is that for him all nature shares in the immediacy of our present
duration.
The conclusion of this discussion is that so far as sense-awareness is
concerned there is a passage of mind which is distinguishable from the
passage of nature though closely allied with it. We may speculate, if we
like, that this alliance of the passage of mind with the passage of
nature arises from their both sharing in some ultimate character of
passage which dominates all being. But this is a speculation in which we
have no concern. The immediate deduction which is sufficient for us is
that--so far as sense-awareness is concerned--mind is not in time or in
space in the same sense in which the events of nature are in time, but
that it is derivatively in time and in space by reason of the peculiar
alliance of its passage with the passage of nature. Thus mind is in time
and in space in a sense peculiar to itself. This has been a long
discussion to arrive at a very simple and obvious conclusion. We all
feel that in some sense our minds are here in this room and at this
time. But it is not quite in the same sense as that in which the events
of nature which are the existences of our brains have their spatial and
temporal positions. The fundamental distinction to remember is that
immediacy for sense-awareness is not the same as instantaneousness for
nature. This last conclusion bears on the next discussion with which I
will terminate this lecture. This question can be formulated thus, Can
alternative temporal series be found in nature?
A few years ago such a suggestion would have been put aside as being
fantastically impossible. It would have had no bearing on the science
then current, and was akin to no ideas which had ever entered into the
dreams of philosophy. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries accepted
as their natural philosophy a certain circle of concepts which were as
rigid and definite as those of the philosophy of the middle ages, and
were accepted with as little critical research. I will call this natural
philosophy 'materialism.' Not only were men of science materialists, but
also adherents of all schools of philosophy. The idealists only differed
from the philosophic materialists on question of the alignment of nature
in reference to mind. But no one had any doubt that the philosophy of
nature considered in itself was of the type which I have called
materialism. It is the philosophy which I have already examined in my
two lectures of this course preceding the present one. It can be
summarised as the belief that nature is an aggregate of material and
that this material exists in some sense _at_ each successive member of a
one-dimensional series of extensionless instants of time. Furthermore
the mutual relations of the material entities at each instant formed
these entities into a spatial configuration in an unbounded space. It
would seem that space--on this theory--would be as instantaneous as the
instants, and that some explanation is required of the relations between
the successive instantaneous spaces. The materialistic theory is however
silent on this point; and the succession of instantaneous spaces is
tacitly combined into one persistent space. This theory is a purely
intellectual rendering of experience which has had the luck to get
itself formulated at the dawn of scientific thought. It has dominated
the language and the imagination of science since science flourished in
Alexandria, with the result that it is now hardly possible to speak
without appearing to assume its immediate obviousness.
But when it is distinctly formulated in the abstract terms in which I
have just stated it, the theory is very far from obvious. The passing
complex of factors which compose the fact which is the terminus of
sense-awareness places before us nothing corresponding to the trinity of
this natural materialism. This trinity is composed (i) of the temporal
series of extensionless instants, (ii) of the aggregate of material
entities, and (iii) of space which is the outcome of relations of
matter.
There is a wide gap between these presuppositions of the intellectual
theory of materialism and the immediate deliverances of sense-awareness.
I do not question that this materialistic trinity embodies important
characters of nature. But it is necessary to express these characters in
terms of the facts of experience. This is exactly what in this lecture I
have been endeavouring to do so far as time is concerned; and we have
now come up against the question, Is there only one temporal series? The
uniqueness of the temporal series is presupposed in the materialist
philosophy of nature. But that philosophy is merely a theory, like the
Aristotelian scientific theories so firmly believed in the middle ages.
If in this lecture I have in any way succeeded in getting behind the
theory to the immediate facts, the answer is not nearly so certain. The
question can be transformed into this alternative form, Is there only
one family of durations? In this question the meaning of a 'family of
durations' has been defined earlier in this lecture. The answer is now
not at all obvious. On the materialistic theory the instantaneous
present is the only field for the creative activity of nature. The past
is gone and the future is not yet. Thus (on this theory) the immediacy
of perception is of an instantaneous present, and this unique present is
the outcome of the past and the promise of the future. But we deny this
immediately given instantaneous present. There is no such thing to be
found in nature. As an ultimate fact it is a nonentity. What is
immediate for sense-awareness is a duration. Now a duration has within
itself a past and a future; and the temporal breadths of the immediate
durations of sense-awareness are very indeterminate and dependent on the
individual percipient. Accordingly there is no unique factor in nature
which for every percipient is pre-eminently and necessarily the present.
The passage of nature leaves nothing between the past and the future.
What we perceive as present is the vivid fringe of memory tinged with
anticipation. This vividness lights up the discriminated field within a
duration. But no assurance can thereby be given that the happenings of
nature cannot be assorted into other durations of alternative families.
We cannot even know that the series of immediate durations posited by
the sense-awareness of one individual mind all necessarily belong to the
same family of durations. There is not the slightest reason to believe
that this is so. Indeed if my theory of nature be correct, it will not
be the case.
The materialistic theory has all the completeness of the thought of the
middle ages, which had a complete answer to everything, be it in heaven
or in hell or in nature. There is a trimness about it, with its
instantaneous present, its vanished past, its non-existent future, and
its inert matter. This trimness is very medieval and ill accords with
brute fact.
The theory which I am urging admits a greater ultimate mystery and a
deeper ignorance. The past and the future meet and mingle in the
ill-defined present. The passage of nature which is only another name
for the creative force of existence has no narrow ledge of definite
instantaneous present within which to operate. Its operative presence
which is now urging nature forward must be sought for throughout the
whole, in the remotest past as well as in the narrowest breadth of any
present duration. Perhaps also in the unrealised future. Perhaps also in
the future which might be as well as the actual future which will be. It
is impossible to meditate on time and the mystery of the creative
passage of nature without an overwhelming emotion at the limitations of
human intelligence.