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Two Times, Three Movements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2024
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The arrow and the wheel have both been used to represent time, which has been measured by the flowing of water or sand, unilateral and definitive, or by the movement of a needle on a dial, an ever recurring cycle. These two aspects of time—the unlimited advance without stop or return and the cycle which passes again and again through exactly the same states— have for various reasons preoccupied both philosophers and astronomers. A universe of infinite duration which never returns to any of its preceding states, the sort suggested by application of the second principle of thermodynamics, has little appeal for certain thinkers and leads them to a sort of cosmic pessimism. A cyclical evolution, on the other hand, with an eternal return to states, if not identical, at least very similar, to the one in which we live, gains more sympathy by providing the mind with a sort of repose, a vague consolation for death. This preference can be observed in action whenever the progress of astrophysics presents a new hypothesis on cosmic evolution. The expansion of the universe, an irremediable evolution, met with a hostility which, under cover of scientific arguments, concealed an affective malaise induced by metaphysical anguish in the presence of this final fading-away, far as it might be from our day.
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- Copyright © 1957 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
References
1. Catastrophes which, by the way, are reparable.
2. A duality in the nature of time has, however, already been considered for different reasons, particularly by Milne and Haldane.
3. While the first point of view, although it distinguished one atom from another, found them equal.
4. Of course it is not surprising that they should escape entropic evolution, since they are isolated and can therefore neither receive nor lose energy, and since they are in thermic equi librium because of the very long duration of the experiment.
5. The occasional success of an action of long duration is due to the fact that it led to a "conversion" of the individual under consideration, who no longer obeys the same laws.
6. Perpetual in the sense as secretaries of the Académie Française, that is, as long as it continues.
7. It must be a question of catalysis, the only chemical function which leaves its operator unchanged.
8. Which justifies the biological adage: There is no living matter; there are only living organisms.
9. A hyperspace having obviously a large number of dimensions.
10. At the same time the number of molecules of small complexity diminishes; they are in effect consumed in the course of the synthesis of more complex groupings, to which they bring the necessary negative entropy.
11. This is most probably, however, the way in which, for the first time on earth, an autoreproductive molecule, initial germ of all life, was produced. But a billion or two years of waiting were perhaps required for that chance to occur once. And perhaps also certain favor able circumstances aided, of which we shall speak further.
12. In fact, this passing flow may represent, millions of times, the order retained by the context under the form of organic complexity.
13. This interpretation may be found quite insufficient to satisfy our minds. Or, rather, it might be satisfactory from the qualitative point of view—for everything we see around us figures in the table of possibilities—but not from the quantitative point of view. In fact, cer tain of the combinations of this table, very particular, therefore highly improbable, are present in great numbers—while billions of others, often more probable a priori, are absent.
14. The three movements might be symbolized by the play of water under the effects of gravity and wind. In a lake, under a calm surface, inner currents can stir the surface eternally without any change in its future. An opening in the surface suddenly precipitates it into dis order without return, in the bed of a torrent. But along comes the wind, and the waves it cre ates strike rocks, breaking into droplets, rising always higher and higher.
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