A Rational Cosmology: The Nature of Time

This is Essay XIX of Mr. Stolyarov's series, "A Rational Cosmology," which seeks to present objective, absolute, rationally grounded views of terms such as universe, matter, volume, space, time, motion, sound, light, forces, fields, and even the higher-order concepts of life, consciousness, and volition. See the index of all the essays in "A Rational Cosmology" here.

Any change is inevitably a relationship between some multiplicity of entities, since no homogeneous entity can affect a change in its own qualities, and the changes in the qualities of a heterogeneous entity can always be explained via the interactions of the entities that compose it (as a heterogeneous entity consists of smaller entities by definition).

Time is that quality of an entity whose measurements increase as change occurs. It should be noted that the change that must occur in order for the measurement of the quality, "time" to increase is not the change of any particular entity, but any change whatsoever.

As a matter of fact, so long as the very possibility of change exists as an interaction between as few as two entities in the entire universe, the concept of time retains meaning, and each entity's particular measurement of the quality, "time" must necessarily increase. This proposition will be examined in greater detail as the basis for a universal and uniform time scale.

Time can be called a quality of entities, because it can be exhibited by particular entities only. There is no such thing as time. Time is not a factor of some "cosmic fabric" separate from entities. Rather, just as each entity must have a spatial existence, so must it have a temporal existence that is measurable.

An entity's age since the first moment of its existence is the measurement of the quality, "time," exhibited by that entity. An entity's age can only increase and never decrease, even if a given change that had occurred with respect to it has been undone precisely.