How We Perceive Time? Cyclical vs Linear vs Vertical (the philosophy of time perception)
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- How do we know time? We don't see it. We don't hear it. We can't touch it. Yet we know it is there. People getting old, day turning to night and plants dying. Without change, we cannot perceive time. In this video I discuss cultural perceptions of time, cyclical time, linear time and inner time or vertical time.
#timeperceptions
#philosophyoftime
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#timeperception
#cyclicaltime
#innertime
For my final video of 2021, I thought I talk about TIME itself, and how it is seen in different parts of the world. Do you care about time? Do you see it as your friend or enemy? Do you see yourself repeating things every week, month or year? Or do you see yourself just growing and changing all the time?
To learn more, watch my two videos on Proust:
10 Lessons on how to be an artist: ua-cam.com/video/jT9LSdpfFvg/v-deo.html
Summary of In Search of Lost Time: ua-cam.com/video/47zd7JIdVcE/v-deo.html
This is truly thought provoking video packed with incredible amount of information in so many different fields. What a creative way to end the year.
Wow, thank you!
Wow.. What a nice video and an eye opener about the relationship between culture, views, science, spirituality, and so on.. Much appreciate the sharing 😊🙏
In that regard i think another thing about people who believes in cyclical time is that they put more emphasis on giving - just like a farmer would keep the seeds for the next year (e.g. giving back to people around you), rather than taking everything for their own enjoyment :) e.g. what goes around comes around :)
Wow. Thank you so much! It’s so kind of you!
@@Fiction_Beast Thank you! You're most welcome!😊
12:02 I support Buddha. We all suffer. A poor man’s suffering both physical and internal psychologically ends when his mind dies. Unfortunately what caused them to suffer and continues to make man of any kind to suffer does not die; diseases, loneliness racism and so on and so. One’s poverty can be temporarily be elucidated by money but the part that human is the common denominator, there is no escape from suffering. Kudos to Buddha. Well done Hippias Minor. I now can also say; you are killing it!
If there is cyclical time there is no true death of the mind
Thank you for the video, I enjoyed it very much.
To understand what time is you need to start with the question 'what is time used for?' not 'what is time?' nor 'how do we perceive time' nor 'what does time do?'.
Time is used to synchronize activities - human keep appointments, swarms of insects meet to breed, schools of fish meet to breed, male plants create pollen when female plants are ready to receive it
Time is used to detect changes - all animals and some plants use time in this way.
Time is used to synchronize processes - plants prepare to photosynthesize before dawn, cells divide in a specific sequence and the next sequence cannot start until the previous one has finished (Mitosis).
Time is used for navigation - bats and whales use sonar, birds migrate.
Do all living things use time? Well the basis of life is cell division, so the answer is yes. Have DNA clocks been found in all types of living organisms - I understand the answer is yes. It appears that the concept of time is engrained in the DNA of every cell.
Do non-living things use time? Is a rock, a planet or a galaxy interested in time? I can only think of one thing. A computer which uses time to synchronize processes and activities but computers are created by living things.
Conclusion - Time is a creation of living organisms, fundamental to life and inherited from the first single celled organism and it is a tool to detect change, synchronize activities and synchronize processes. It is essential requirement for life. Time has no meaning when there is no life.
An argument against this. Things existed before life so time must exist independently. This is a time-biased question because it contains the word 'before' so it requires a living organism to be viewing the universe from some impossible external viewpoint and seeing a point when life appears. So the argument is nonsensical.
Once you understand what time is, you can answer all the questions.
How do we know time is there? We know time is there because it is within every cell of our bodies and in a particular part of our brain.
Do we need change to perceive time? No, it is the exact reverse, we need time to perceive change. I need a memory of 'before' to compare to a memory of 'now' to detect change.
Is time linear or cyclical. It is linear but on the planet Earth it is beneficial to synchronize an organism's time with the rotation of the earth, the movement of the moon and/or the movement of the Earth around the Sun which makes time appear cyclical in some instances.
Why do we sense time moving more slowly or more quickly? Time appears to move more slowly or more quickly because the organism senses its environment more quickly to catch prey, avoid being eaten, evaluate a new situation or environment. Hence time moves more quickly for children because everything is new and slowly for adults because everything (until they take up parachuting) is familiar.
Do we know more about the past than the present and the future? We know more about our memory of the past, we know more of the past from the recordings of memories of the past in paintings, books, films etc. We know nothing of the present because our brains take time to interpret the information we receive from our senses, so we never experience the present. We know nothing about the future because this is only speculation, supposition, imagination and probability.
What came first time or space? You would have to define space because it can be argued that space is also a tool created by organisms to identify the boundary of objects in a similar way that time identifies the boundary of events. I think time came first because this is required for cell division and space came later when organisms became aware of movement and change.
Should you live your life based on linear or cyclical time? It is the choice of the organism. It doesn't make any difference. The universe doesn't care.😃
“Time and tide wait for no man.” “Time is of the essence!” Most excellent video-comparing Eastern and Western views of Time.
Thanks so much for listening.
I can listen to you all day and you have a way explaining things without being over the top..I am new to your channel and simply love it.
Awesome!
This channel is my addiction! I just can’t get enough of it . Thank you for its awesome content 🙏💕
You are so welcome!
I was happy navigating my world of audiobooks. Never a better time to be into literature and hear men especially in these thought provoking subjects come to life thru them placing their thoughts on paper for the lucky few to enjoy, wonder, contemplate, be challenged , agree,disagree etcetera but Hippias Minor is also becoming my blurb🤣🤣. I go to his wall to hear what he thinks on so and so author before I commit my time. Some reads are hours but captivating. I don’t know Hippias but carry on the heavy task. You know it’s much appreciated. This on here is special.
I had never heard of a language that places the future behind you and the past in front, but once you explained it, it made sense.
Great video essay, by the way
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for the comment.
I like this video a lot. Keep on going!
Thanks!
I very much appreciate your urge to make more content like this. 🙏
Last minute and half - I cannot agree more! I'm reading Marcel Proust this year and learning a different perception of time. Thank you for the video, it is such an excellent and informative summary and introduction.
Proust is quite an undertaking, so well done. I have summarised ISOLT here and have talked about Proust philosophy in 10 lessons, in case you like to watch here.
Highly underrated video here. Glad I found this channel.
This is one of the best channel on UA-cam
You’re kind.
Jesus kiddo! 80 thousand subs! You’re on a mad tear! So happy for you. Time is so important to me. The other day I took selfies for my husband and at my age it’s hard to get good ones. That whole ordeal took twenty minutes, felt like 5. I won’t be a slave to my phone.😩
My world conquering has began :) 100k by Christmas. lol
I am not into selfies. I would rather ask someone else. even I manage to conquer the world, the phone has me conquered.
@@Fiction_Beast Congratulations!! To be honest my selfie days are long gone but when you’re married you know the old adage. Happy husband, happy life.😀. Keep conquering the world. So proud of you
I thought it was the other way around. Happy wife :)
The more time passes, the more I binge on this channel. In order for me to stop binging you shop stop time.
Thank you for your video. You're really helping me understand the concept of Cyclical Time.
Dude this channel is absolutely amazing. You should have só much more subscribers
You're very kind. Please share among friends.
Thank you for your great videos of the past year. "Great Expectations" of what the next year will bring!
Thanks for the company. Yeah sure, more to come.
Excellent explanation. Great video. Keep it up
Thank you for providing the exact content I was looking for!
Truly Outstanding. As someone with a website dealing with Cyclical time at a semi academic and journalistic level and a just started UA-cam channel with (wait for it) only 20 subscribers I am hugely impressed. I have viewed many websites dealing with time and have yet to see a more concise and incisive coverage of all facets of the issue - it is underlining for me that a UA-cam channel dealing with philosophic or intellectual issues can have an intellectual impact that you just don't see in academia let alone the scientific world. I would like to make contact and if you reply will send you my website details and perhaps add to this reply - but only if you wish. I have of course subscribed.
Anton
Thanks for your precious time
Love it
Times drags on so it could have been a thousand years. A part of me will.always be here.
Brilliant video!!
The best modern analysis of time by far times infinite.
I was awe struck once, and pursued to believe in cyclical time when I came across Dostoevsky's notion of cyclical existence in The Brothers Karamazov on the chapter of " The Devil. Ivan's nightmare" When he says;
"Why, you keep thinking of our present earth! But our present earth may have been repeated a billion times. Why, it's become extinct, been frozen ; cracked, broken to bits, disintegrated into its elements, again 'the water above the firmament,' then again a comet, again a sun, again from the sun it becomes earth-and the same sequence may have been repeated endlessly and exactly the same to every detail. " - Project Gutenberg ed. 1 translated version of The Brothers Karamazov by F. Dostoevsky
Bone chilling chapter with giant philosophical overlaps like the perception of time and my best read for this year thus far thanks to one of your presentations, keep up the good work.🙏🙏🙏
V.
unbelievable video, by far one of the best I've ever seen, keep up with the good work. Greetings from Brazil!
Wow, thanks!
thank you so much for. taking the time to make these videos.
Glad you like them! Really appreciate your comment.
Thanks for the extraordinary video!
Thank you!
I believe time is always measured in terms of change, so our use of using units to measure time is just a convenience factor.
Love this video. Great for my research that I'm doing for an art project... on time. The hardest thing about time for me as an artist is how to express it, because it is so personal. I would like the work to be universal... but it's an impossibility... time is so subjective, we do not/cannot exist outside of it. How to visualise something from inside it? Hopefully, in time, I'll find a way.
Thank you, your video is profoundly thought-provoking.
Thank you!
Great analysis Fiction Beast. Bowie states the future belongs to those who can see it coming. Time is the one thing money can’t buy and there is never enough of IMHO Great work and thank you for you hard work, great succinct, constructive and concise overview. I am currently getting a bit of a grip on Heidegger and I am finding his views insightful facticity and transcendence, I also enjoyed Nietzsche use and abuse of history. Thank you once again; great work.
Really appreciate it mate!
"Time is the fire in which we all burn."
Hi again dear matt
I was wondering if you could make individual videos about The Plague,The Idiot,Nausea,The Stranger,The candidate and a video about Albert Camus,generally.
I know it's a lot to ask but please make them.I just looooove your videos and learn a lot from them.Things that i'm unable to formulate and just flounder.
Thanks a lot.Wish you the bests❤❤❤❤❤
Right now I have a few books on my list but I’ll get to your suggestions.
@@Fiction_Beast Thanks. Please keep up your good work.I love the philosophical/psychological steer that you say in your videos❤❤👏👏
Valuable commentary
The problem with the cyclical model, is that is a system based on the idea of processes, rather than the concept of time on a cosmic/universal level.
What if time is neither linear, nor cyclical. What if, it is spherical?
this was wonderful
Awesome. thanks for listening.
I like this timely review.....
It's that time of the year! Thanks for the comment.
Can anyone explain me the cyclical time in fewer words? I have watched the video 2 times in a row but couldn’t understand fully. Thanks in advance. 😊
Very impressive! I also see Time as a God, sometimes cruel, but always almighty. Although I was born in Europe the Western way of perceiving Time does not represent me. For me, living the present moment, being there mentally, focused on what you are doing then and there - for example talking to someone - without rush or interference, it's very important.
To take your time is a habit that we can learn from Proust - even if that means that you are not "efficient" (according to corporate assessment).
Thank you for all of your time invested in this video!
You’re very welcome. I agree life is meant to be lived In the present.
I think I am fond of your work and the way you have presented the work so creatively. I like your narration. I would personally would like to be in touch with you for i really find a very good artist in you. Appreciate your work and more love to you.
Wow, thank you!
Time is an illusion among many other illusions comprising life.
Hunger, pain, poverty, lack, boredom, despair, freedomlessness, fear, ill-health, uncertainty, losses, loneliness, incpacitated physical-mental state
are persistent harsh realities .
Saying that time changes doesn't actually make sense. What is changing is us not the general constructed concept of time.
If we are keeping our minds going, we can't perceive it because we are not paying attention to it.
When we are paying attention to it then we acknowledge how that construct isn't passing.
Time is only to limit the duration of our actions but the feeling of time lapse is actually within us and our perspectives are kind of like the cat in the box. Our acknowledgement changes things just as our lack of acknowledgement changes things or keeps things constant.
I think time is neither linear nor cyclical but more like a spiral.
The egg becomes a adult chicken which lays an egg which becomes a chicken which again lays an egg like in cyclical time but on a large scale, the chicken population evolves new traits like in linear time. So every cycle is not like the other like in a spiral time.
But I would put more emphasis towards progression as a mere accumulation of change instead of progress as a movement towards a goal. Humans and other animals are maybe goal oriented but the universe, evolution or even history are just accumulations without an end goal.
Even when the universe dies the heat death, statistical fluctuations can still revers entropy if given enough time. The second law just describes the average behavior of macroscopic systems. And evolution does not go towards some kind of global optimum, a species which is superior towards all other species in every situation. Instead there are just shifting local niche dependent optimum which change with the environment. And history maybe has technological advancement but even this is not guaranteed to continue and could crash down any time. There is no reason to think that humanity will live longer then all the species that came before it. History is also not just the history of technology so to talk about progress in history as a whole is somewhat dubious.
Consciousness was much much much...
earlier aware of space than of time,
so space was before time.
Just as time does not matter in holistic processes,
space nevertheless exists,
because the processes are happening in space.
The question is time is not energy at all not physics chemistry and even mathematics very very meaningful yet detached from vectors unless applied as vector calculus to spaces. So slatute ( respect ) to time is here as " kalaye tasmai namah " is a prayer mantra status is there. We respect time more than anything else.
please read eliade and cioran
@fictionbeast i would want to get in touch with you. Let me know how to get in touch with you.
Hey FB! You misunderstand the difference. Cyclical and linear time are the same. Cyclical is the abstract and linearity is the minutiae. Either way that you look at it, you will find the other. This isnt opposed to science. The logical conclusion to the big bang is that everything will eventually cool and contract. This is the key to understanding life as it works with the same energy everywhere. As the law goes.. as above, so below.
Next, the concept of reincarnation is misunderstood by many. It refers to the human spirit, itself. Not any individual. Its very straight forward. Or rather the universal spirit inhabiting a human body, because we are highly influenced by our brain's evolution, it stands to reason that all animals share the same spirit.
TIME is masterly painted with two vivid colours : cyclic and linear ......
U seem like a saint to me...
John Woo, Christopher Nolan:
-time goes brrrrrrrrrrr
There is a forth idea about time: time does not exist. Just as you said, all we sense is change. Even the clock is changing which we interpret as it measuring the time. These is no evidence altogether that such thing as time really exists. I can't imagine how our ancestors invented this word.
Yes, I hade the same Idea. As I was younger I thought that only change is what really exists. Time is then just a convention to compare quantities of change. The future and the past do not exist therefore there is only a eternal and ever changing present. Our concept of space and time are just the product of the interaction and internal processes of objects.
But then we have time dilation and the relativity of simultaneity , which implies that the past and future exists in the same way as the present. So maybe time ist a geometric net of connections between systems. And if the connection is strong then they can more strongly influence each other which creates the perception of distance in spacetime.
1. Humans perceive it wrong. They perceive it as a mysterious physical property. It is not a physical property, it is a measurement system that we use to track CHANGE, which is the physical property. Change does not need time units (nor space units). The units need change (they were designed for change).
2. For example, if you want to go back in time, just run your clocks backwards. If you want to visit the past, you need to go back in CHANGE (to a past arrangement of atoms in the universe, or, easier, your small zone of interest). You can push things backwards, but that is destructive to thinks in the present. You can calculate it, or you can work from a snapshot of the past, such as recreating yourself -- resurrection via technology -- which will not happen if you continue to misconstrue time. Good luck in trying to change your biological brain -- it resists change (in ideas, at least).
This video is a bit bias. I can tell the writer is more familiar are comes from eastern area and believes in Buddha. Or maybe he is not as familiar with Christian believes as Jesus is not a ‘super hero’ and does not promote individualism or perfection as we all fall short of the universal moral standard. Additionally, Christians believe that we must develop an inner standing that our situations may change but we need not be attached to the things in the world but be content in any circumstance or suffering…knowing that trials build perseverance…finding our strength in the Holy Spirit and having faith that Jesus lived to love us, died because he loved us, and rose from His grave to demonstrate the power of God and how we have been given the same power(Holy Spirit) to heal trauma, bring relationships, dreams, marriages from the dead.
We all do the same stuff Day After day
Today we work and sleep
The prehistoric woke up go go Hunt eat and sleep
Today the Rich find other planets because this Planet/reality isnt enough for them
I like you philosophical take.
16:42 16:43
Great video ma dude! Very interesting and thought provoking. I both love and hate to think about time, it's such a mind fuck. I can only really appreciate time when I meditate, yet at the same.. time, my perception of time disappears. Perhaps because I don't witness change, as you said. To your comments about the process and goals, I too think that goals are great for direction and motivation but for fulfilment and enjoyment I believe the process is the way to go. Because even if you hit your goal, you'll most likely move on to the next goal, and to the next, and to the next, which is essentially a process. Anyway keep up the good work.
Btw, have you seen George Carlin's sketch on time? The way he incorporate comedy and philosophy is quite fantastic. I'll link it here ua-cam.com/video/zaR3sVpTB98/v-deo.html
AION (GOD) IS CYCLICAL TIME (PHANES - SERPENT)
CHRONOS (GOD) IS LINEAR TIME
(EROS - GOLDEN WINGS)
I thought the Greeks didn't know how to make domes? not that they chose to not do so..
Hinduism doesn't believe in many gods. The Bagavadgita describes it best, there is only one god Brahama (everything in existence) and the diffrent representations of god are only diffrent faces of Brahama, just as branches are diffrent parts of the same structure that is the tree.
Your assessment of western religious is incomplete and incorrect. The old testament has cyclical vision of life.
Great video it’s was full of ideas without facts and a lot of feelings without reference. I will point out that yes a clock is shaped circular so the hands can go around it but you will never and I mean so help me god you will never go back to yesterday so the fact you keep mentioning time as a cyclical ideology is so archaic and hysterical. Time only moves forward never back, I mean are you really that stubborn! You can’t go back to yesterday and your soul is stuck in your body til death. 💀 stock acting larger than life comparing all Americans to one way of thinking and India to another. India literally is a Muslim country and the clock itself being molded after a watch which was developed and invented by Arabs during the Ottoman Empire. Time is quite literally linear so long as you are alive and potentially after.
Time doesn’t exist. It’s just how we can measure things and how we understand what happened in the past en what might happen in the future. But time is just a concept. It is not real and not graspable
If you can't do the time,dont do the crime.
You lost me at darwin - hello its 21st century, and he has been mathematically disproven.
I hate this orientalism and "East vs West divide" narrative. Very othering.