time

September 30, 2024 5:00 AM

Their debate began almost by accident. The meeting in April had been convened to bring together physicists and philosophers to discuss relativity theory, but Bergson came intending only to listen. When the discussion flagged, however, he was pressed to intervene. Reluctantly, he rose and presented a few ideas from his forthcoming book, Duration and Simultaneity [archive] (1922). What Bergson said in the following half an hour would set in motion a debate that reverberated through the 20th century and down into the 21st. [aeon, previously]
posted by HearHere (2 comments total)

Einstein was right of course but he was also missing something and so Bergson was right too. The gap between physical time, as a mathematical construct, and philosophical time still exists.

This topic has of course continued to evolve. For anyone who is interested in this I'd recommend the Time philosopher Craig Callender (!)'s recent book What Makes Time Special? and also the hugely influential 2004 paper by the physicist James Hartle called The Physics of Now.
posted by vacapinta at 6:55 AM on September 30 [2 favorites]

I gave this a quick skim and will return to it later, but I just want to mention that the writer of the article is Evan Thompson and he's really great. I was once embarrassed myself tremendously at a philosophy conference by cornering him at dinner and drilling him with questions when he clearly just wanted to decompress after having given his talk. My lack of decorum still haunts me to this day, but he tolerated me patiently and I learned a lot that evening.
posted by Alex404 at 7:01 AM on September 30