Time, Noumenon

Music is a synergy between intellect and time, I think, and it’s something genuinely special, because it operates on frequencies, some of which are occult, and those which we cannot hear, technically, I mean, do we actually hear frequencies? Or is that just what science tells us? Or is there some other exclusive property of music which we are missing when we talk about music? I don’t know. I just plant these questions because I can.

I used to wonder as to the nature of time. I still wonder what measures time. It still seems to me to be a work in progress, as to what “measures” time. I don’t think the year or the seconds or the minutes are adequate in describing what time actually is.

There is something different when we think about time. I mean, it seems to me like the quantity of time is immeasurable. I don’t know if that makes sense. But the philosophy of time is something that has always interested me.

I don’t know how you measure a second. It is indefinable.

How do you measure a second? I guess there is some standard measure. I guess… But how do you really measure it?

They say the atomic clock “knows” but does it really? I think we as sentient beings know.

Yet there is this sense of time passing us by, time going away, wasting time, spending time, etc. Where does all that come from?

I don’t know.

Anyway, my point with music is that it is a quantification of time, and it seems to be something that gives rhythm and joy and jubilation to time. And so does language. I mean language is our primary method of communication, I think it’s safe to say. So therefore it seems likely that language also has some relationship with time.

Maybe something metaphysical could explain time. I don’t know. Perhaps it is just a construct we’ve all tacitly or explicitly (though I don’t know) agreed to use as a standard. But what is a second? What is it? It is immeasurable. There is no unit beneath it except smaller denominations of it. Such as the millisecond, the nanosecond, etc. But is there really an atomic level of time, according to which we can really, truthfully say we have nailed it – we have noticed that there is this elementary notion of time, and that is it, according to science, or according to whatever principles we employ to “define” time?

That is why philosophy in its relationship to time has always interested me. Immanuel Kant said famously that time and space are basically inseparable. That is pretty much true in my view, too. But what is that noumenon beyond which we cannot know?

Noumenon means that which we cannot know. So, is there a veil beyond which we cannot see?

Perhaps.

I guess it’s just interesting to ponder these things.

I don’t get why more philosophers haven’t gotten into subjects like these.

Maybe they have, and I just haven’t read them – that is a possibility.

But I feel like time is one of those things we take for granted but we don’t really know what it is.

And yet, time is all around us, time is passing, time is going by, time is passing us by, etc. And what do we make of all that?

It seems like we just want to acquire more time, but if we don’t know what time is, how can we acquire more time?

I don’t know. This is not just metaphysical speculation, it’s a serious problem. I mean, if we don’t know what time is, how can we possess it, have “more” of it, etc.?

And thus that leads me to conclude that a lot of us are deluded about time. It seems like once we have a definition of what time actually is, perhaps we can gain more insight into what time means to us as humans.

And maybe we can gather insight into what time means in general. But see, I have already made a distinction I don’t want to make, which is that time is different in different segments of reality. That might give rise to something interesting though. It might give rise to the supposition that time is actually different according to different circumstances. I think science does have some things to say on this. Such as the fact that time is relative. I mean take Albert Einstein for example. He said there is a theory of relativity. Right? And thus, the universe bends or does its thing to accommodate that. I guess. I don’t know for a fact.