From: Mark Earnest on
On Jul 7, 9:40 pm, Immortalist <reanimater_2...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> What sort of things are they if they are things?
>
> One natural answer is that they comprise continua, three-dimensional
> in the case of space, one-dimensional in the case of time; that is to
> say that they consist of continuous manifolds, positions in which can
> be occupied by substances and events respectively, and which have an
> existence in their own right.
>
> It is in virtue of the occupancy of such positions that events and
> processes are to be seen as taking place after each other and
> substances are to be seen in certain spatial relations.
>
> Or do space and time have properties of their own independent of the
> objects and events that they contain?
>
> Did Einstein show, through his theory of relativity, that since space
> and time can change in shape and duration that space and time are more
> complex than just sustained perceptual constants?
>
> Metaphysics - by D. W. Hamlynhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521286905/

Space is the Final Frontier,

and Time is the ticking of a clock.

Easy enough?
From: Giga2 on
On 8 July, 03:40, Immortalist <reanimater_2...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> What sort of things are they if they are things?
>
> One natural answer is that they comprise continua, three-dimensional
> in the case of space, one-dimensional in the case of time; that is to
> say that they consist of continuous manifolds, positions in which can
> be occupied by substances and events respectively, and which have an
> existence in their own right.
>
> It is in virtue of the occupancy of such positions that events and
> processes are to be seen as taking place after each other and
> substances are to be seen in certain spatial relations.
>
> Or do space and time have properties of their own independent of the
> objects and events that they contain?
>
> Did Einstein show, through his theory of relativity, that since space
> and time can change in shape and duration that space and time are more
> complex than just sustained perceptual constants?
>
> Metaphysics - by D. W. Hamlynhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521286905/

I think one fundamental aspect of Einstein's idea of spacetime is that
it is a single 'thing'.
From: Michael Helland on
On Jul 7, 7:40 pm, Immortalist <reanimater_2...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> What sort of things are they if they are things?


Guess who said this:

"It will be helpful to distinguish space and time into absolute and
relative. Relative space and time are measurements."

That's Newton in the Principia. Einstein did quite a bit to reinforce
that notion.

Of course, that's also more or less Plato, Buddha, and the first words
of the Tao and the Bible.

Make of that what you will.

From: Michael Helland on
On Jul 7, 10:43 pm, Mark Earnest <gmearn...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Jul 7, 9:40 pm, Immortalist <reanimater_2...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > What sort of things are they if they are things?
>
> > One natural answer is that they comprise continua, three-dimensional
> > in the case of space, one-dimensional in the case of time; that is to
> > say that they consist of continuous manifolds, positions in which can
> > be occupied by substances and events respectively, and which have an
> > existence in their own right.
>
> > It is in virtue of the occupancy of such positions that events and
> > processes are to be seen as taking place after each other and
> > substances are to be seen in certain spatial relations.
>
> > Or do space and time have properties of their own independent of the
> > objects and events that they contain?
>
> > Did Einstein show, through his theory of relativity, that since space
> > and time can change in shape and duration that space and time are more
> > complex than just sustained perceptual constants?
>
> > Metaphysics - by D. W. Hamlynhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521286905/
>
> Space is the Final Frontier,
>
> and Time is the ticking of a clock.

Newton said that relative time is the ticking of the clock.

And relative space is the reading of a ruler.

For some reason (possibly the writing of Einstein) the definition of
time is easily recited but the proper analogy to space is a bit of
head scratcher.
From: Michael Gordge on
On Jul 8, 11:40 am, Immortalist <reanimater_2...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:

What are space and time?
> What sort of things are they if they are things?

Space is matter, it exists regardless of man's mind, time is a man
made mind dependent concept.

MG