溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Does Absolute Time Flow Uniformly, of Itself?
Does time flow alone, empty and indifferent to any event within it?
Absolute, true, and mathematical time flows uniformly, of itself.
Newton's absolute time was science's unwavering foundation for two centuries, yet met powerful rebuttal from the start. In his famous correspondence with Newton, Leibniz countered that there is no time flowing alone and empty — time is only the order of events. An absolute time with nothing happening cannot even be observed. The debate was settled two centuries later by Einstein, who showed there is no absolutely uniform time, that time varies with the observer's motion and gravity. Newton's absolute stage collapsed, and time became again entangled with the world. Whether time flows alone was decided at the heart of physics, then opened once more.
For us who take the uniform time of the clock for granted, Newton's question — whether such absolute time truly exists — recalls the startling fact that science overturned.
Laying the foundation of physics, Newton defined time in exactly the opposite direction from Augustine.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Laying the foundation of physics, Newton defined time in exactly the opposite direction from Augustine. True time flows uniformly of itself, whether or not we measure it, indifferent to whatever happens within it. Even with no event in the universe, time ticks uniformly. This absolute time became the unwavering stage on which all motion is measured. I sense this definition tore time entirely from the mind and nailed it to the objective world. Between the time indifferent to mind and the time I live, I stand too.
✍️Your Answer
The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.
🔒 This answer is stored only on your device. It is never sent to a server.
This is not a museum of answers but a lineage of questions. All sources are public-domain texts; the lineage and reflection are 100% original ONGO content.
