The constitution of the universe rules the formation, existence and destruction of all the objects in a space and
time continuum of consciousness.
In a space -
time continuum of uniform metric structure, the angle - sum of the interior angles of these two rectilinear triangles will be equal.
Now, if measurement can be significant only if the measuring rod is free of all deforming influences, not simply those attributed to the influence of «differential» forces, then given a space -
time continuum of variable metric structure, no set of conditions can be specified to ensure that the measuring rod does not undergo deformation in its length as it is transported from point to point during the process of measurement.
The possibility of the circularity involved in practical measurement in a space -
time continuum of variable metric structure is emphasized by C. I. Lewis, «The Categories of Natural knowledge,» The Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, ed.
27A two - dimensional analogue of a space -
time continuum of uniform metric structure having a Lobachewskian geometric structure may be constructed as well; see Nagel, The Structure of Science, pp. 237 - 40.
Two rectilinear triangles constructed on the surface of a sphere so that their corresponding sides have the same length represent a two - dimensional analogue of a space -
time continuum of uniform metric structure having a Riemannian geometric structure.
This feature of a space -
time continuum of uniform metric structure, which is familiar because of its association with fundamental congruence theorems such as in the Euclidean geometry of a plane surface, is not unique to Euclidean geometry.
The deeper question is how intuitively convincing is this claim when confronted by the fact that the whole earth is one fleeting speck in the observable space -
time continuum of the cosmic process?
Not exact matches
As strange as this timely dilemma is, it's not a distortion
of the space -
time continuum that's to blame.
As we keep saying, ICOs have not warped the space -
time continuum so as to apply the Securities Act differently than other classes
of securities.
And our many specialized programs offer a
continuum support to service members throughout their journey
of service, from the first
time they don the uniform until the last
time they take it off.
Makes sense, since the fullness
of Eternity lies beyond our space -
time continuum.
A mass also created by fluctuations
of time and space held together by sub atomic forces which are also created by fluctuations
of the
time space
continuum.
Gravity is the result
of the bending
of the
time space
continuum from it natural linear state due to the presence
of mass.
Whitehead alluded to this distinction and proposed that mental space -
time conforms to the dominant space -
time of nature: he was led to the position «that we are aware
of a dominant space -
time continuum and that reality consists
of the sense - objects projected into that
continuum» (ENP 102; 3 PPT4).
Mason somewhat artificially narrows «the ordinary concept (or interpretation)
of time» against which ecstatic - horizonal temporality is counterposed to the point - set interpretation
of the
time -
continuum required by Newtonian mathematical mechanics.
Space,
time, and change describe the relations
of various actual entities in terms
of this
continuum.
What he fails to spell out in detail here but indicates elsewhere (e.g., PR 96-98/147 -150) is that the extensive
continuum or, more specifically in terms
of our cosmic epoch, the space -
time continuum is not just a single overarching community
of actual occasions but an interlocking network
of communities or societies
of occasions, each
of which possesses its own laws and proper dynamism.
Of course our best - attested scientific world - view shows that there is only one «space -
time continuum» within which everything occurs.
An actual supernatural thing would, for us to interact with it in any way, be required to impinge upon this space -
time continuum, and we see that, regardless
of scale, i.e. microscopic or macroscopic, there is absolutely zero evidence that there is anything interacting with us or our universe in any way.
Although they differ radically from one another and appear in widely varied contexts, in two regards these early prophets testify to a prophetic
continuum from premonarchic
times (and even from the age
of Moses) to the decay and collapse
of monarchy in Israel and on into the days
of Jewish reconstruction.
The theory
of evolution presupposes that those individuals that we now call horses are part
of a
continuum of development that changes over
time.
Analogously regarding
time, the Big Bang theory hypothesises an original moment when a minute speck
of reality exploded into the energy - mass
continuum constituting our universe.
The way
of distinction, therefore, puts a positive valuation on the
time - space
continuum and, though it sees divine redemption as the remaking
of history into something new, it can not conceive
of divine - human interaction in other than historical terms which preserve the qualitative difference between God and man.
Laszlo's equivalent
of creativity is his cosmic matrix or primordial
continuum defining space and
time and providing the absolute potential from which systems emerge, take their places, and build hierarchical relationships through evolutionary development (ISP 292).
And this space -
time continuum is an assemblage
of entities — namely, regions.
In the final part
of this discussion, Cobb makes the intriguing suggestion that the separated soul might exist in two - dimensional space -
time rather than in our four dimensional
continuum.
If
time is isomorphic with the real number series
of the mathematical
continuum, then there is no next instant after the present instant.
Once a finite quantum
of space -
time has been actualized by the concrescence
of a new occasion, the quantum may be divided into smaller parts in accordance with the mathematics
of the
continuum.
Other
times, as when he argues from the supposed uniformity
of our perceptual field to the uniformity
of the spatiotemporal
continuum, Whitehead begins with direct experience (PW 217-21/240 -45).
The B - series side
of time taken alone will land us in Zeno's paradoxes because the B - series leads to isomorphism with the mathematical
continuum and so to infinite divisibility.
But we understand and judge Whitehead to be a realist, and so he must have an analysis
of creative advance which gets around the problems that arise when
time and space are allowed to be isomorphic with the mathematical
continuum, the problem with which is that its series are dense rather than discrete.
Each actual occasion prehends the space -
time continuum in its infinite entirety; that, says Whitehead, is nothing but an example
of the general principle (also illustrated by prehension
of qualitative eternal objects) that «actual fact includes in its own constitution real potentiality which is referent beyond itself.»
There is one «extensive
continuum»
of potential regions; it is differentiable into space and
time according to relativistic principles.
When new qualities emerge, these qualities, belonging to that pattern
of the space -
time continuum, are wholly immanent in the new event in which they are realized.
Every occasion, as it completes its concrescence, is (1) located in a specific region
of the space -
time continuum, and (2) is perfectly definite in regard to the inclusion
of every eternal object.
These passages should make it clear that the extensive
continuum is not a container sitting there waiting for actual occasions to happen in it; it is not an analogue to the notion
of absolute space and
time; it is not a fact prior to the world.
With the becoming
of any actual entity what was previously potential in the space -
time continuum is now the primary real phase in something actual» (Process and Reality, An Essay in Cosmology 103 and 104).
The modernization perspective also suggests that a kind
of wholesale movement in the world has been going on for some
time — movement along the
continuum from less modern to more modern.
and it did so because
time is a dimension
of the space
time continuum, that under sufficient conditions allows passage forward and backward like all spacial dimensions, thus the laws
of evolution for the universe are capable
of spontaneously creating themselves.
In partial defense
of this view, Parmenides» student, Zeno, showed that both science and common sense ran into paradoxes when they assumed (as they did at that
time) that space and
time are made up
of elementary units, but still are
continua.
We can but vaguely conceive
of them, and from our perspective we are perhaps incapable
of describing their relationship to our own space -
time continuum.
«33 The whole
continuum of conditions and consequences in
time is set aside.
to the
continuum of space,
time, and cultures.
But because such religions are inextricably mixed with Christian traditions — most Haitians, for example, are located somewhere on a voodoo - Catholic
continuum — the number
of Christians is not at the same
time overestimated.
The Prime Cause is simply a mathematical probability tipping a cascade
of mathematical possibilities into the space /
time continuum some 14 billion years ago.
But if the Space -
Time continuum is now generally accepted as the only framework within which our thought can continue to progress, it becomes the more necessary that we should agree upon the nature and general direction
of the flow on which we are borne.
To the extent that this is simply a reaction against a static and abstract rationalism, it is wholly salutary; but it becomes pernicious if it goes so far as to cause us to overlook what is truly exceptional and essential in the phenomenon
of Thought — the power
of Consciousness to centrate so perfectly upon itself as to be able to situate itself (itself and the Universe at the same
time) in the explicit framework of a present, a past and a future — that is to say, in a Space - Time contin
time) in the explicit framework
of a present, a past and a future — that is to say, in a Space -
Time contin
Time continuum.
Although both Newton and Whitehead claim that there is a uniform and independent metric structure
of the space and
time continuum, Whitehead's claim is on behalf
of a uniform and independent system
of relations, not a substantial entity in its own right.
In Wright's interpretation, which owes much to the realized eschatological views
of C. H. Dodd and G. B. Caird, Jesus did not proclaim the imminent end
of the world, if by «world» one means the space -
time continuum.