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Three Concepts of Time
The existence of so many strangely puzzling, even contradictory, aspects of 'time' is due, I think, to the fact that we obtain our ideas about temporal succession from more than one source - from inner experience, on the one side, and from the physical world on the other. 'Time' is thus a composite notion and as soon as we distinguish clearly between the ideas deriving from the different sources it becomes apparent that there is not just one time-concept but several. Perhaps they should be called variants, but in any case they need to be seen as distinct. In this book I shall aim at characterising what I believe to be the three most basic of them. These form a sort of hierarchy of increasing richness, but diminishing symmetry. Any adequate inquiry into 'time' is necessarily partly scientific and partly philosophical. This creates a difficulty since what may be elementary reading to scientists may not be so to philosophers, and vice versa. For this reason I have sought to present the book at a level which is less 'advanced' than that of a specialist monograph. Due to my own background there is an inevitable bias towards the scientific aspects of time. Certainly the issues I have taken up are very different from those discussed in several recent books on the subject by philosophers.
180 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1981
9 people want to read
About the author
K.G. Denbigh
9 books9 followersKenneth George Denbigh, chemical engineer and philosopher of science was born in Luton, Bedfordshire on 30 May 1911. He died in London on 23 January 2004.
Kenneth Denbigh was trained as a chemist; he became a chemical engineer during the Second World War, and in the last phase of his career was distinguished also for his writings on the metaphysical problems of "time" and its relation to thermodynamics.
He was born in 1911 of Yorkshire farming and industrial stock. His father, George Denbigh, was the manager and later a director of Brothertons, a chemical works in Wakefield. It was Kenneth's early experience of these works that led him to chemistry. He graduated with first class honours at Leeds in 1932 and in two further years completed a PhD with Robert Whytlaw-Gray.
Kenneth Denbigh was trained as a chemist; he became a chemical engineer during the Second World War, and in the last phase of his career was distinguished also for his writings on the metaphysical problems of "time" and its relation to thermodynamics.
He was born in 1911 of Yorkshire farming and industrial stock. His father, George Denbigh, was the manager and later a director of Brothertons, a chemical works in Wakefield. It was Kenneth's early experience of these works that led him to chemistry. He graduated with first class honours at Leeds in 1932 and in two further years completed a PhD with Robert Whytlaw-Gray.
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