What is time?
Network formation
Conclusion SRT
Derivation of GR (General Relativity)
In search of the universe
ok show me the universe
What is needed?
But is it time? One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein published general relativity, a brilliant, elegant theory that survived a century and discovered the only successful way to description space-time (space-time continuum ).

There are many different points in the theory that indicate that general relativity is not the last point in the history of spacetime. Indeed, although I like GR as an abstract theory, I have come to think that it may have taken us a century off the path of knowing the true nature of space and time.

I have been thinking about the structure of space and time for a little over forty years. In the beginning, as a young theoretical physicist, I simply accepted Einstein's mathematical formulation of the problem of special and general relativity, and also did some work in quantum field theory, cosmology and other fields based on it.

But about 35 years ago, partly inspired by my experience in technical fields, I began to explore in more detail the fundamental questions of theoretical science, which began my long journey beyond the traditional mathematical equations and using calculations and programs instead as the main models in science. Shortly thereafter, I happened to find out that even very simple programs can demonstrate very complex behavior and then, years later, I discovered that systems of any kind could be represented in terms of those programs.

Encouraged by this success, I began to wonder if this could be related to the most important of scientific questions- the physical theory of everything.

Firstly, this approach did not seem very promising - if only because the models that I studied (cellular automata) seemed to work in a way that completely contradicted everything that I knew from physics. But around 1988, at the time when the first version of Mathematica came out, I began to realize that if I changed my ideas about space and time, perhaps this would lead me to something.

A simple theory of everything?

From the article it does not seem at all obvious that the theory of everything for our universe should be simple. Indeed, the history of physics introduces additional doubts, because the more we learn, the more complicated things become, at least in terms of the mathematical apparatus they introduce. But, as noted, for example, by theologians many centuries ago, there is an obvious feature of our universe - there is order in it. The particles of our universe not only obey some of their own laws, but also obey a certain set of general laws.

But how simple can a theory of everything be for our universe? Let's say we can represent it as a program, let's say in the Wolfram Language. How big will this program be? Will it be comparable to the length of the human genome, or more like an operating system in size? Or will it be much less?

If I had answered this question before I began to explore the computational universe of simple programs, I would most likely have answered that such a program must be something very complex. However, I was able to discover that in the computational universe, even extremely simple programs can exhibit arbitrarily complex behavior (this fact is reflected in the general principle of computational equivalence).

Universe data structure

But what should such a program look like? One thing is clear: if the program can really be extremely simple, then it will be too small to explicitly encode some of the obvious features of our universe, such as particle masses, various kinds of symmetry, or even spatial dimensions. All of these things have to emerge somehow from something lower and more fundamental.

But if the behavior of the universe is determined by a simple program, then what is the structure of the data with which this program works? At first I assumed that it should be something easy to describe, like the structure of cells that appears in a cellular automaton. But even if such a structure works well for describing models of various things, it seems that it must be quite implausible for fundamental physical models. Yes, it is possible to find such rules that will exhibit behavior that on a large scale will not show the obvious properties of the structure. However, if physics can indeed be described by some simple model, then it seems that such a rigid structure for space cannot be included in it, and that the properties of space must result from something.

So what's the alternative? We need a lower-level concept than the space from which it will be born. We will also need basic structure data that will be as flexible as possible. I have been thinking about this for many years, studying a wide variety of computational and mathematical formal systems. But in the end, I realized that basically everything I encountered can be represented in one way - with networks.

Space as a graph

So can space be made up of something like this? In classical physics and general relativity, space is not represented as consisting of anything. It is represented as some kind of mathematical construct that serves as a kind of stage on which there is a continuous range of possible positions occupied by different objects.

However, can we say for sure that space is continuous? When quantum mechanics was born, the idea was popular that space, like everything else, is quantized. But it was not clear how this idea could be combined with SRT, in fact, there was no clear evidence of the discreteness of space. When I started doing physics in the seventies, the discussion of the discreteness of space came to naught, plus it was experimentally proved that at scales up to 10 -18 m (1/1000 of the radius of a proton, or attometer) there is no discreteness. After 40 years and tens of billions of dollars spent on particle accelerators, on scales up to 10 -22 m (or 100 yoctometers), the discreteness of space has not been discovered.

However, there is an opinion that it should appear on a scale near the Planck length - 10 -34 meters. But when people think about it, say, in the context of spin networks, loop gravity, or whatever, they tend to assume that everything that happens there is closely related to the formalisms and concepts of quantum mechanics.

But what if space - probably on a Planck scale - is just a good old graph, devoid of quantum properties? It doesn't sound very impressive, but to set up such a graph requires much less information - it's enough just to say which nodes are connected to which.

But how can such a thing generate space? First of all, where does the apparent continuity of space come from on large scales? In fact, everything is very simple: this may be the result of a large number of nodes and connections. A bit like what happens in liquids - say, in water. On a small scale, we can observe molecules darting around thermal motion. However, the scale effect causes all these molecules to give rise to what we perceive as a continuous fluid.

It so happened that in the mid-80s I spent a lot of time studying this phenomenon - this was part of my work, in which I understood the nature of the apparent randomness of turbulent fluid flows. In particular, I was able to show that if we imagine molecules as cells of a cellular automaton, then their large-scale behavior will be accurately described by differential equations for fluid flows.

And therefore, when I began to think about the possibility of the existence of a substructure of space, which can be represented as a network, I thought that the same methods could be used here, and that this could reduce Einstein's GR equations to other, much lower level ones.

Maybe there's nothing but space

Good. Suppose space is a network. But what can be said about all things located in space? What can be said about electrons, quarks, protons, and so on? Standard physical concepts say that space is a stage on which particles, strings, or whatever are located. However, this representation becomes very complex. But there is a simpler option: perhaps everything in our universe is made up of space.

In the last years of his life, Einstein was quite fascinated by this idea. He believed that perhaps particles such as electrons could be considered as something like black holes, which consist of only space. However, relying only on the formalism of general relativity, Einstein was unable to develop this idea, as a result of which it was abandoned.

And, it just so happened that a hundred years before that, similar ideas lived in the minds of some people. These were the times before SRT, when people thought that space was filled with a fluid-like medium - ether (ironically, we are now back to the filled space model - the Higgs field, quantum fluctuations in vacuum, and so on). Meanwhile, it was understood that there were different types of atoms corresponding to different chemical elements. And it has been suggested (in particular by Kelvin) that different atoms it is possible to compare various nodes of the ether.

This is an interesting idea, albeit wrong. But when thinking of space as a network, one can consider a similar idea: perhaps the particles correspond to certain network structures. Perhaps everything that exists in the universe is a network, and some structures of this network correspond to matter. Such things can be easily found on the field of a cellular automaton. Even if each cell obeys some simple rules, certain structures with their own properties appear in the system - just like particles with the physics of interaction with each other.

How all this can be implemented on networks is a separate and very large topic. However, first we should discuss one very important thing- time.

What is time?

In the 19th century there were concepts of space and time. Both were described by coordinates, and with the help of some mathematical formalisms appeared in a similar way. However, the idea that space and time are in some way one and the same was not in vogue. But then Einstein appeared with general relativity, and people started talking about space-time, in which space and time are the facets of a single concept.

It brings many meanings to SRT, in which, for example, movement with variable speed is the essence of rotation in four-dimensional space-time. And all this century physicists considered space-time to be some kind of entity in which space and time do not have fundamental differences.

But now things get a little more complicated. After all, there may be many places on the network where you can apply a similar rule. So what determines the order in which each fragment is processed?

Essentially, each possible ordering corresponds to its own temporal flow. And one could imagine a theory in which all flows have a place to be, and our universe has a multiple history.

But we can do without this hypothesis. Instead, it is quite possible that there is only one thread of time - and this correlates well with what we know about the world, with our experience. And to understand this, we have to do something like what Einstein did when he formulated SRT: we have to introduce a more realistic model of what an observer can be.

Needless to say, any real observer should be able to exist in our universe. Thus, if the universe is a network, then the observer must be some part of this network. Let us now remember the permanent small changes that take place on the network. In order to know that such a change (update) has taken place, the observer itself must be changed (updated).

And this is where things get interesting. If the network behaves as undistorted in a space of higher dimension d-dimensional space, then the number of nodes will always be about rd. But if the behavior is like curved space (as in general relativity), then there will be a correction term proportional to this mathematical object, like the Ricci tensor. And this is very interesting, because the Ricci tensor just appears in the Einstein equations.

There are a lot of mathematical difficulties here. It is necessary to consider the shortest paths - the geodetic lines of the network. It should be understood how to do anything not only in space, but also on the network over time. It is also necessary to understand to what extent the properties of the network are manifested.

When withdrawing mathematical results it is important to be able to obtain different kinds of averages. In essence, this is similar to deriving equations for a liquid from the dynamics of molecules: you need to be able to take the average from a certain range random values in low-level interactions.

But the good news is that there are a vast number of systems built on even extremely simple rules that are like the digits of pi, that is, for any applied purpose, they are quite random. It turns out that even if the features of the causal network are completely determined for someone who knows the initial state of the network, then most of these features will be, in fact, random.

Here is what we end up with. If we introduce the assumption of effective microscopic randomness and assume that the behavior of the system as a whole does not lead to a change in all limiting dimensions, then it follows that the scaling behavior of the system satisfies the Einstein equations!

I think it's very interesting. Einstein's equations can be derived from practically nothing. This means that these simple networks reproduce the features of gravity that we know from modern physics.

There are a number of details that do not fit the format of this article. I voiced many of them quite a while ago in NKS, especially in the notes at the end.

Some of the things might be worth mentioning. First, it is worth noting that these basic networks are not only represented in the usual continuously defined space, but also do not define such topological concepts as inside and outside. All these concepts are corollary and derivable.

When it comes to deriving Einstein's equations, Ricci tensors are born from geodesic lines on the network along with the growth of spheres that originate from every point on the geodesic line.

The resulting Einstein equations are the Einstein equations for vacuum. But as in the case of gravitational waves, one can effectively separate the features of space associated with matter, and then obtain the complete Einstein equations in terms of matter-energy-momentum.

As I write this, I realize how easily I slip into the “language of physicists” (probably due to the fact that I studied physics in my youth ...). But suffice it to say that, at a high level, the exciting thing is that from the simple idea of ​​networks and causally invariant substitution rules one can derive the equations of general relativity. By doing surprisingly little, we get the brightest star of 20th-century physics: general relativity.

Particles, quantum mechanics and more

It's great to be able to deduce general relativity. But the physics doesn't end there. Another very important part of it is quantum mechanics. I'm afraid I won't be able to expand on this topic in the scope of this article, but it seems that particles such as electrons, quarks or Higgs bosons should be represented as some special areas of the network. In a qualitative sense, they may not differ much from Kelvin's "ether nodes".

But then their behavior must follow the rules we know from quantum mechanics - or, more specifically, from quantum field theory. Key Feature quantum mechanics is that it can be formulated in terms of multiple behaviors, each of which is associated with a certain quantum amplitude. I'm not entirely clear on all this, but there is a hint that something similar is happening when looking at the evolution of the network with the various possible sequences of low-level replacements.

My network model, strictly speaking, has no quantum amplitudes. It is more similar (but not exactly) to the classical, in fact, probabilistic model. And for half a century, people believed that there were practically unsolvable problems associated with such models. After all, there is such Bell's theorem, which says that if there are no instantaneous non-local distributions of information, then there is no such model of "hidden variables" that can reproduce the quantum mechanical results observed experimentally.

But there are fundamental remarks. It is quite clear what nonlocality means in an ordinary space of some dimension. But what can be said in the context of networks? Everything is different here. Because everything is determined by connections alone. And while the network may appear to be three-dimensional on a large scale, it remains possible that there are some "threads" connecting some areas that would be separated from each other without them. And one thought haunts me - there is reason to believe that these threads can be generated by particle-like structures that propagate in the network.

In search of the universe

Well, it turns out that some network-based models can reproduce the models of modern physics. But where should one begin the search for a model that accurately reproduces our universe?

The first thought is to start with existing physics and try to adapt the applied engineering rules to replicate it. But is this the only way? But what if we just start listing all the possible rules, looking among them for those that will describe our universe?

Before I began to study the computational universe of simple programs, I would have thought that this is a crazy idea: the rules of our universe cannot possibly be simple enough to be found by a simple enumeration. But after seeing what's going on in the computational universe, and seeing some other examples where amazing things have been found by just brute force, I realized that I was wrong.

But what will happen if someone really starts to carry out such a search? Here is a selection of networks obtained after a fairly small number of steps, using all possible rules of a certain, very simple type:

Some of these networks clearly do not correspond to our universe. They simply froze after a few iterations, that is, time in them, in fact, stopped. Or the structure of their space was too simple. Or they had an infinite number of dimensions. Or some other problem.

It's great that with such amazing speed we can find those rules that clearly do not fit our universe. And to say that this particular object is our universe is much more challenging task. Because even if you simulate a large number of steps, it will be incredibly difficult to show that the behavior of this system demonstrates the same thing that the physical laws tell us about the early moments of the life of the universe.

Although there are a number of encouraging things. For example, these universes could be born with a virtually infinite number of dimensions and then gradually contract to a finite number of dimensions, potentially eliminating the need for explicit inflation in the early universe.

And if you think at a higher level, then you should remember that if you use very simple models, then there will be a large distance between "neighboring models", so that, most likely, these models will either accurately reproduce known physical constructions, or will be far away. from the truth.

In the end, it is necessary to reproduce not only the rules, but also the initial state of the universe. And once we know it, then we can fundamentally know the exact evolution of the universe. So does this mean that one could immediately know everything about the universe? Definitely not. Because of a phenomenon that I call "computational irreducibility", which implies that if you know the rules and initial state for a system, it can still require an irreducible amount of computational work to trace each step of the system to figure out what it is doing.

However, there is a possibility that someone could find a simple rule and initial state by saying " Look, this is our universe!"We would find our universe in the space of all possible universes.

Of course, this would be a significant day for science.

But there would be many other questions. Why this particular rule and not another? And why should our universe have a rule that appears early enough in our list of all possible universes that we can find by simple enumeration?

One might think that it is the peculiarities of our universe and the fact that we are in it that will force us to form the enumeration rules so that the universe appears early enough. But at the present time, I think that things should be much more extravagant, as, for example, in the case of an observer in the universe - all of the large class of non-trivial possible rules for universes are in fact equivalent, so you can choose any of them and get exactly the same results are just different.

ok show me the universe

But all this is just guesswork. And until we actually find a candidate for the rule of our universe, it's probably not worth spending much time discussing these things.

So good. What is our current position in all of this? Most of what was discussed now, I understood somewhere in the 99th - a few years before the end of A New Kind of Science. And even though I wrote plain language, and not in the format of a physics article, I managed to cover the main points of this topic in the ninth chapter of the book, adding some technical details in the notes at the end.

But after the book was finished in 2002, I started working on physical problems again. It would be funny to say that there was a computer in my basement that was looking for a fundamental physical theory. But here's what he actually did: he listed possible rules of various types and tried to find out if their behavior met certain criteria that would make them plausible as models of physics.

I did this work very meticulously, drawing ideas from simple cases, consistently moving towards more realistic ones. There were many technical questions. How to represent large evolutionary sequences of graphs. Or how to quickly recognize subtle patterns that show that a rule doesn't fit our universe.

The work has grown to thousands of pages when presented in printed form, gradually getting closer to understanding the basics of what network-based systems can do.

In a sense, it was a kind of hobby that I did in parallel with the routine of managing the company and its technological development. And there was another distraction. For many years I have been concerned with the problem of computational knowledge and the construction of an engine that could comprehensively implement them. And from the results of my work on A New Kind of Science, I am convinced that this is possible, and that now is the right time to implement this.

By 2005, it became clear that it was indeed possible to implement, and therefore I decided to devote myself to this direction. The result is Wolfram|Alpha . And once Wolfram|Alpha was launched, it became clear that much more could be done - and I devoted my most productive decade to creating a huge system of ideas and technologies that made it possible to implement the Wolfram Language in its current form, and as well as many other things.

To do physics or not - that is the question

But during this decade I did not study physics. And when I look at the file system on my computer now, I see a large number of notebooks with physics materials, grouped with the results I got, all of which have remained abandoned and untouched since the beginning of 2005.

Should I return to questions of physics? I definitely want this. Although there are other things that I would like to implement.

I have spent most of his life, working on a very big projects. And I've been working hard, planning what I'm going to do, trying to plan it out for the next decade. Sometimes I postponed projects because the technology or infrastructure that existed at that time was not yet ready for them. But as soon as I started working on a project, I made a promise to myself to find a way to complete it successfully, even if it would take many years of hard work to complete it.

However, the search for a fundamental physical theory is perhaps somewhat different from projects that I have worked on before. In a sense, the criteria for his success are much more stringent: he either solves the problem and finds a theory, or not. Yes, one could find many interesting abstract concepts from emerging theory (as in string theory). And it is likely that such a study will yield interesting side results.

But unlike the creation of technologies or research scientific fields, the formulation of the content of this project is beyond our control. Its content is determined by our universe. And, quite possibly, I'm just wrong in my assumptions about how our universe works. Or maybe I'm right, but there is an almost insurmountable barrier due to computational irreducibility that deprives us of the ability to know this area.

Some might say that there is a possibility that we will find some universe that looks like ours, but we will never know if it is really ours. I don't really care too much about it. I think there are enough anomalies in existing physics attributed to things like dark matter, the explanation of which will give us full confidence that we found the correct theory. It would be great if you could make a guess and quickly test it. But by the time we derive all the seemingly arbitrary particle masses, and other notable features physics, one can be sure that we are dealing with a correct theory.

It was amusing for many years to ask my friends if I should deal with fundamental questions in physics. And I got three completely different types of answers.

The first one is simple: You must be doing this!"They said the project was the most exciting and important project imaginable, and they couldn't understand why they should wait one extra day before starting it.

The second type of answers: " Why would you want to do this?"Then they say something along the lines of 'Why not solve the problem artificial intelligence, or molecular engineering, biological immortality, or, according to at least, not to build a huge multi-billion dollar company? Why do something so abstract and theoretical when you can do something vital and thereby change the world?

And there is a third type of answers - highly expected, if we keep in mind the history of science. It mostly comes from my physicist friends, and it's some combination of " Don't waste your time on this!" and " Please don't do this".

The fact is that the current approach to fundamental physics, based on quantum field theory, is almost 90 years old. He had a number of successes, but did not lead us to a fundamental physical theory. But for most modern physicists, the current approach is the essence of physics itself. And when they hear about what I'm working on, they think it's something so unfamiliar, like it's not really physics.

And some of my friends are just saying, " I hope you don't succeed, because then everything I've worked on will go down the drain.". Well, yes, a lot of what is done will turn out to be meaningless. But you always face this risk when you are engaged in a project in which nature decides what is right and what is not. But I must say that even if you can find a truly fundamental physical theory, there will still be a very large field for the work of quantum field theory, for example, the explanation of various effects on scales that we are currently working with in particle accelerators.

What is needed?

So, well, if I start a project to find a fundamental physical theory, then what should I do? This is a complex project that will require not only me, but also a diverse group of talented people.

Whether it will eventually work, I don't know, but I think it will be quite interesting to watch it, and I plan to present it in a transparent format, making it as accessible and educational as possible (of course, this will be an encouraging contrast to that hermit regime, in which I worked on A New Kind of Science for ten years).

Of course, I cannot know how complex this project is, and whether it will bring results at all. Ultimately it depends on what our universe really is. But based on what I did ten years ago, I have a clear plan for where to start and what kind of people to bring together as part of the same team.

This will require both good scientists and applied engineers / engineers. A lot of work will need to be done in the development of algorithms for the evolution of networks and their analysis. I am sure that this will require graph theory, modern geometry, group theory and, perhaps, some other branches of abstract algebra. And I would not be surprised if a large number of other areas of mathematics and theoretical computer science are involved as a result.

This will require complex and serious physics, with an understanding of the basics of quantum field theory, string theory and, possibly, such sections as spin networks. It will also probably require the methods of statistical physics and its modern theoretical foundations. An understanding of general relativity and cosmology will be required. And, if things go well, it will require work on a large number of different physical experiments, as well as their interpretation.

There will also be technical problems - to understand, for example, how to carry out huge computational work on networks and visualize the results. But I suspect that the biggest problems will be in the construction of the building. new theory and understanding what is needed to learn various kinds network systems that I want to explore. There will be no superfluous support from the existing areas. But in the end, I suspect, it will require the construction of a significantly new intellectual structure, which will not be like anything that exists now.

But is it time?

Is now the right time to implement such a project? Maybe we should wait until computers get more computing power. Or when certain areas of mathematics advance further. Or until a few more questions from physics are answered.

I'm not sure. But I do not see any insurmountable obstacles, but only that this project will require efforts and resources. And who knows: maybe it will turn out to be easier than we think, and we, looking back, will wonder why no one has done this before.

One of key points that led to general relativity 100 years ago was that Euclid's fifth postulate (" parallel lines never intersect") may not hold in the real universe, allowing the existence of curved space. But if my suspicions about the cosmos and the universe are correct, then that means there are actually more fundamental problem in the foundations of Euclid - in his very first definitions. After all, if there is a discrete subspace network, then Euclid's assumptions about points and lines that can occupy any spatial positions are simply not correct. Add tags

INTRODUCTION

More than 2500 years have passed since the beginning of the understanding of time and space, however, the interest in the problem and the disputes of philosophers, physicists and representatives of other sciences around the definition of the nature of space and time do not decrease at all. Significant interest in the problem of space and time is natural and logical, the influence of these factors on all aspects of human activity cannot be overestimated. The concept of space - time is the most important and most mysterious property of Nature or, at least, of human nature. The notion of space-time stifles our imagination. It is not for nothing that the attempts of the philosophers of antiquity, the scholastics of the Middle Ages and modern scientists, who have knowledge of the sciences and experience in their history, to understand the essence of time-space did not give unambiguous answers to the questions posed.

Dialectical materialism proceeds from the fact that "there is nothing in the world but moving matter, and moving matter cannot move otherwise than in space and time." Space and time, here act as fundamental forms of the existence of matter. Classical physics considered the space-time continuum as a universal arena of the dynamics of physical objects. In the last century, representatives of non-classical physics (particle physics, quantum physics etc.) put forward new ideas about space and time, inextricably linking these categories with each other. A variety of concepts have arisen: according to some, there is nothing in the world at all, except for empty curved space, and physical objects are only manifestations of this space. Other concepts claim that space and time are inherent only to macroscopic objects. Along with the interpretation of time - space by the philosophy of physics, there are numerous theories of philosophers who adhere to idealistic views, for example, Anri Bergson argued that time can only be known by non-rational intuition, and scientific concepts that represent time as having any direction misinterpret reality.

It is advisable to start the study with the ideas of ancient natural philosophy, then analyzing the whole process of development of spatio-temporal ideas up to the present day.

DEVELOPMENT OF IDEAS ABOUT SPACE - TIME BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY.

The concept of space and time in ancient philosophy.

The concept of time arose on the basis of a person's perception of the change of events, the given change in the states of objects and the cycle of various processes. Natural science ideas about space and time have come a long way of formation and development. The very first of them arose from the obvious existence in nature and, first of all, in the macrocosm of solid physical bodies occupying a certain volume. Rational ideas that are consistent with today's ideas about time - space can be found in the teachings of almost all ancient thinkers. So already in the teachings of Heraclitus, the central place is occupied by the idea of ​​​​universal change - we enter the same river and do not enter. In the analysis of the ancient doctrines of space and time, we will focus on the two most fully investigated this issue: the atomism of Democritus and the system of Aristotle.

The atomistic doctrine was developed by the materialists of Ancient Greece, Leucippus and Democritus, and in many respects anticipated the fundamental discoveries of scientists of the last century. According to this doctrine, all natural diversity consists of the smallest particles of matter (atoms) that move, collide and combine in empty space. Atoms (existence) and emptiness (non-existence) are the first principles of the world. Atoms do not arise and are not destroyed, their eternity stems from the absence of a beginning in time. Atoms move in the void for an infinite time, which corresponds to an infinite time. According to Democritus, atoms are physically indivisible due to the density and absence of emptiness in them. The concept itself was based on atoms, which, in combination with emptiness, form the entire content of the real world. These atoms are based on amers (the spatial minimum of matter). The absence of parts in amers serves as a criterion for mathematical indivisibility. Atoms do not break up into amers, and the latter do not exist in a free state. This coincides with the ideas of modern physics about quarks. Describing the system of Democritus as a theory structural levels matter - physical (atoms and emptiness) and mathematical (amers), we are faced with two spaces: a continuous physical space as a container and a mathematical space based on amers as scale units of matter extension. In accordance with the atomistic concept of space, Democritus developed ideas about the nature of time and movement. Later they were developed by Epicurus into a coherent system. Epicurus considered properties mechanical movement based on the discrete nature of space and time. For example, the property of isotachy is that all atoms move at the same speed. On the mathematical level the essence of isotachy is that in the process of moving atoms pass one atom of space for one atom of time.

Aristotle begins his analysis with the general question of the existence of time, then transforms it into the question of the existence of divisible time. Further analysis of time is carried out by Aristotle already at the physical level, where he focuses on the relationship of time and movement. Aristotle shows that time is unthinkable, does not exist without movement, but it is not movement itself. In such a model of time, the relational concept was implemented for the first time. You can measure time and select its units of measurement using any periodical movement, but in order for the resulting value to be universal, it is necessary to use the movement with maximum speed. In modern physics, this is the speed of light, in ancient and medieval philosophy, it is the speed of the celestial sphere.

Space for Aristotle acts as a relation of the objects of the material world, it is understood as an objective category, as a property of natural things. Aristotle's mechanics functioned only in his model of the world. It was built on the obvious phenomena of the earthly world. But this is only one of the levels of Aristotle's cosmos. His cosmological model functioned in an inhomogeneous finite space, whose center coincides with the center of the Earth. The cosmos was divided into two levels: earthly and heavenly. The earthly level consisted of four elements - earth, water, air and fire; celestial - from ethereal bodies residing in the infinite roundabout. Aristotle managed to create the most perfect model of space-time for its time, which lasted more than two millennia.

Development of ideas about space and time in classical physics.

The next significant step in the development of ideas about the nature of space and time was the work of representatives of classical physics. As for the ancient researchers of the world, for the representatives of classical physics, the main ideas were ordinary ideas about space and time as about some kind of external conditions of being in which matter is placed and which would be preserved even if matter disappeared. Such a view made it possible to formulate the concept of absolute space and time, which received its most distinct formulation in the work of I. Newton “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”. This work determined the development of the entire natural-science picture of the world for more than two centuries. It formulated the basic laws of motion and defined space, time, place and motion.

Revealing the essence of space and time, Newton proposes to distinguish between two types of concepts: absolute (true, materialistic) and relative (seeming, ordinary) and gives them the following typological characteristics:

“Absolute, true, materialistic time in itself and in its essence, without any relation to anything external, flows evenly and is otherwise called duration. Relative, apparent, or ordinary, time is either an exact, or a changeable, external measure of duration comprehended by the senses, used in everyday life instead of true mathematical time, such as: hour, day, month, year ... ".

Absolute space, in its essence, is not connected with the objects placed in it, and regardless of anything external, it always remains the same and motionless. Relative space is a measure or some limited movable part, which is determined by our senses according to its position relative to certain bodies, and which in everyday life is taken for a fixed space. Time and space are, as it were, receptacles for themselves and for everything that exists. With this understanding, absolute space and time were presented as some self-sufficient elements of being, existing outside and independently of any material processes, as universal conditions in which matter is placed. For Newton, absolute space and time are the arena of the movement of physical objects.

This view is close to the substantial understanding of space and time, although Newton does not consider them to be real substances, like matter. They have only one sign of substance - the absolute independence of existence and independence from any specific processes. But they don't have another important quality substances - the ability to generate various bodies, to remain in their basis with all changes in bodies. Newton recognized this ability only for matter, which was considered as a collection of atoms. True, matter is also a secondary substance after God, who created the world, space and time and set them in motion. God, being a non-spatial and timeless being, is not subject to time, in which everything is changeable and transient. He is eternal in his infinite perfection and omnipotence and is the true essence of all being. The category of time does not apply to him, God exists in eternity, which is an attribute of God. In order to fully realize his infinite wisdom and power, he created the world out of nothing, creates matter, and with it space and time as conditions for the existence of matter. But someday the world will fully implement the divine development plan laid down in it during creation, and its existence will cease, and space and time will disappear along with the world. And again there will be only eternity as an attribute of God and his infinite omnipresence. Similar views were expressed by Plato, Aurelius, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and their followers.

Space and time in philosophy are complex concepts with which a lot of questions are still connected. They were studied not only by philosophers, but also by representatives of other sciences: mathematics, physics, and so on. Terms such as "space" and "time" appeared in philosophy a long time ago. The first works that are somehow connected with them belong to Democritus, Newton, Epicurus.

Space and time in philosophy

The material world that surrounds us consists of various kinds of structural ones that are constantly in motion and also developing. Their development is a kind of unfolding process. This process goes through certain stages.

In essence, space is nothing but the ability of an object to be extended, to have a place among others, and also to border on them. Time is spoken of when comparing different durations, which express the speed of development of deployment processes, their pace, and also rhythm. Space and time in philosophy always have a certain connection. Their categories are matter.

There are various concepts that have space and time. Philosophy knows two of them:

Substantial;

Relational.

The first considers both of them as free entities that exist completely independently of material objects - that is, independently. In the second case, they are treated as between objects as well as processes. Outside of these objects and processes, neither one nor the other exists.

As mentioned above, these concepts are also considered by other sciences, but it was philosophy that helped to discover their main properties. Space and time have the following general properties:

Inextricable bond with matter, as well as with each other;

Absoluteness;

Dependence on processes, as well as on interactions within material systems;

The unity of the continuous as well as the discontinuous in their own structure;

Qualitative and quantitative infinity.

There are metric as well as topological properties of time and space. Topological characteristics are related to discontinuity and continuity, orientability, connectedness, dimension, and so on. Metric characteristics display isotropy, infinity, finiteness, and so on.

The universal properties of space are location, extent, coexistence different elements, the possibility of connecting elements, increasing or decreasing their number.

Metric properties are primarily associated with the extent of space. They express how spatial elements are connected, what laws their connections obey.

The specific properties of space are also known. These include:

Symmetry and asymmetry;

Location;

Distance between objects;

Distribution of field and matter;

Boundaries that define various kinds of systems.

The general properties of time are:

Connection with the attributes of matter;

duration;

Asymmetry and one-dimensionality;

Orientation from the past to the future;

Irreversibility.

The specific properties of time include certain periods of the existence of bodies, the simultaneity of various events, the rhythm of processes, the pace of development, as well as the relationship of different cycles of development that are in the same system.

Albert Einstein was able to prove that in our world, time and space intervals always change when moving to another frame of reference. made it clear deep connection that exists between space and time. She also showed that there are single space, as well as time. The space and time that we feel are just projections of the very same time and space. They can split depending on how the bodies behave.

SPACE AND TIME

SPACE AND TIME

universal forms of existence of matter, its most important attributes. There is no matter in the world that does not have spatio-temporal properties, just as there is no P. and in. by themselves, outside of matter or independently of it. Space is the being of matter, characterizing its extension, structure, and the interaction of elements in all material systems. Time is a form of existence of matter, expressing its existence, the sequence of changing states in the change and development of all material systems. P. and in. are inextricably linked, they are manifested in the movement and development of matter.

In pre-Marxist philosophy, as well as in the classical. physics P. and in. often torn off from matter, considered as independent. entity or ext. conditions for the existence and movement of bodies. In Newton's concept abs. space was understood as an infinite extension containing all matter and not depending on c.-l. processes, and abs. time - as current regardless of c.-l. changes uniform duration, in which everything arises and disappears. In the Newtonian concept of P. and in. some substantive signs were attributed - abs. independence and self-sufficiency of existence; at the same time P. and in. were not considered as generative substances from which all bodies arise. In the material list. natural philosophy and based on its principles of physical. theories dominated atomistic. structure of matter: only moving, existing and changing in P. and in. as ext. living conditions.

AT religious and objectively idealistic. exercises put forward a similar P. and in. as universal ext. conditions of existence of bodies, however, P. and in. were interpreted as created together with matter by God or abs. spirit. From the point of view of theology to God, the concepts of P. and in. are not applicable: as the highest, infinite and creative, it is extra-spatial and exists not in time, but in eternity, which is one of its attributes. In the subjective-idealistic. concepts were put forward eclectic. and internally contradictory interpretations of P. and in. as a priori forms of feelings. contemplation (Kant) or as forms of ordering complexes of sensations and experimental data, establishing functional dependencies between them (Berkeley, Mach, positivism).

For the first time authentic scientific P.'s understanding and in. as universal attributes and forms of existence of matter was put forward and substantiated by K. Marx and F. Engels. Dialectic teaching. materialism about P. and in. got deep in natural science 20 in. Means. contribution to the modern ideas about P. and in. introduced A. Einstein: she revealed the inseparable P. and in. as a single form of existence of matter (space-time), established the unity of the space-time and causal structure of the world, discovered the relativity of the space-time characteristics of bodies and phenomena.

The subject of dialectical-materialistic. P.'s theory and in. are methodological. major achievements modern science in P.'s understanding and in. to develop a holistic worldview, the universal properties of P. and in. in their connection with others attributes of matter, theoretical. infinity P. and in. in quantities. and qualities. relationships, the study of patterns scientific P.'s knowledge and in. and forms of communication changing scientific theories about P. and in.

To the universal properties of P. and in. include: objectivity and independence from human consciousness; absoluteness as attributes of matter; inextricable connection with each other and with the movement of matter; from structural relationships and development processes in material systems; unity of discontinuous and continuous in their structure; quantities. and qualities. . Distinguish metric. (i.e. measurements related) and topo-logical. (e.g. connectedness, spaces and , one-dimensionality, irreversibility of time) P.'s properties and in. Knowledge of the universal properties of P. and in. is the result of the duration. historical the development of science, the selection in the process of generalization and abstraction of such invariant characteristics of diverse spatio-temporal relations that manifest themselves at all structural levels of matter.

Along with the uniform characteristics, which in equally inherent in both space and time, they are characterized by some features that characterize them as different, albeit closely related, attributes of matter. The universal properties of space include, first of all, extension, which means rowing and coexistence. various elements (points, segments, volumes and t. P.), the possibility of adding some next element to each given element, or the possibility of reducing the number of elements. Any system can be considered extended, in?-poa changes in the nature of the connections and interactions of its constituent elements, their number relative position and qualities. features. This means that the extent is closely related to the structural nature of material systems, which has an attributive . Non-extended objects would not have structure, internal connections and the ability to change. Space is also characterized by connectivity and continuity, which manifests itself both in the nature of the movement of bodies from point to point, and in the distribution of physical objects. impacts through The various fields (electromagnetic, gravitational, nuclear) in the form of short-range action in the transfer of matter and energy. Connectivity means absence c.-l."breaks" in space and violations of short-range action in the propagation of material influences in fields. At the same time, space is characterized by , which manifests itself in the separate existence of material objects and systems that have a definite. dimensions and boundaries, in the existence of a variety of structural levels of matter with different spaces. relationships. A common property of space, found at all known structural levels, is three-dimensionality, which is organically connected with the structure of systems and their movement. All material processes and interactions are realized only in the space of three dimensions. In one or two dimensions (line, plane) interactions between matter and field could not occur. abstract (conceptual) multidimensional spaces in modern mathematics and physics are formed by adding to the three spaces. time coordinates and others parameters, taking into account the interconnection and changes of which is necessary for a more complete description of the processes. However, these conceptual spaces, introduced as a way of describing systems, should not be identified with real space, which is always three-dimensional and characterizes the extent and structure of matter, the coexistence and interaction of elements in various systems. With the extent of space are inextricably linked to its metric. properties expressing the features of the connection of spaces. elements, and quantities. the laws of these relationships. In nature, metric properties of space is determined by the heterogeneity of structural relations in systems, in particular the distribution of gravitating masses and the magnitude of gravity. potentials that determine the "curvature" of space.

To specific. (local) The properties of the space of material systems include symmetry and asymmetry, specific shape and dimensions, location, distance between bodies, spaces. distribution of matter and fields, boundaries separating different systems. All these properties depend on the structure and ext. connections of bodies, the speed of their movement, the nature of interactions with ext. fields. The space of each material system is fundamentally open, continuously transforms into space others system, which may differ in metric. and others local properties. This is where the multiplicity comes from. real space, its inexhaustibility in quantities. and qualities. relationships.

To the universal properties of time (or time relations in material systems) include: objectivity; inextricable connection with matter, as well as with space, movement and others attributes of matter; duration, expressing the sequence of existence and change of states of bodies. Duration is formed from moments or intervals of time arising one after another, which together constitute the entire period of the body's existence from its appearance to the transition to qualitatively different forms. Acting as a kind of "extension" of time, duration determines

caught by the general preservation of matter and motion during their transformations from one form to another. The time of existence of each particular object is finite and discontinuous, because everyone has a beginning and an end to existence. However, the constituent matter does not arise from nothing and is not destroyed, but only changes the forms of its being. Due to the general persistence of matter and motion, the time of its existence is continuous, and this continuity is absolute, while discontinuity is relative. The continuity of time corresponds to its connectedness, the absence of "gaps" between its moments and intervals.

Time is one-dimensional, asymmetrical, irreversible and always directed from the past to the future. specific physical. the factors characterizing the irreversibility of time are the increase in entropy in various systems, over time, quantities. laws of motion of bodies.

Specific the properties of time are specific periods of the existence of bodies from the appearance to the transition to qualitatively different forms, events, which is always relative, processes, the rate of change of states, the pace of development, temporal relationships between various cycles in the structure of systems.

The development of science at 20 in. revealed new aspects of P.'s dependence and in. from material processes. From the theory of relativity and experimental facts modern physics it follows that with an increase in the speed of movement of bodies and its approach to the speed of light, it increases, the linear dimensions in the direction of movement are relatively reduced, all processes slow down compared to the state of relative. rest tel. The slowing down of temporal rhythms also occurs under the influence of very powerful gravitational fields created by in large numbers substances (which appears e.g., in the redshift of spectral emission lines so-called. white dwarfs and quasars, which have very high density and powerful gravitational fields). With quantities. an increase in the density of matter (up to values ​​of the order of 1094 g/cm3 and more) metric, and possibly some topological ones, must change qualitatively. P.i properties in. From observational data extragalactic. astronomy it follows that the average density of matter in the Metagalaxy of the order of 10-31 g/cm3 corresponds to an open space negative. curvature. However, these data cannot be extended to the whole as a whole, since matter is not homogeneous and in the world there are countless structural levels and types of material systems with their own spatio-temporal relationships.

F. Engels, Dialectic of Nature, K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, t. 20; his, Anti-Dühring, ibid.; Lenin V.I., Materialism and, PSS, t. eighteen; his own, Philos. notebooks, there t. 29; Einstein A., Fundamentals of the theory of relativity, M.-L., 19352; Newton, I., Mathematic. the beginning of natural philosophy, M.-L., 1936; Fok V. A., Theory P., V. and gravitation, M., 19612; Steinman R. Ya., P. and in., M., 1962; Melyuhin S. T., Matter in its unity, infinity and development, M., 1966; GrunbaumA., Philos. P.'s problems and in., per. with English, M., 1969; Infinity and the Universe. Sat. Art. , M., 1969; MostepanenkoA. M., The problem of universality main P.'s properties and in., L., 1969; him, P. and in. in the macro-, mega- and microworld, M., 1974; P., V., M., 1971; Varashenkov V. S., Problems of subatomic P. and in., M., 1979; Akhundov M. D., Concepts of P. and in.: origins, evolution, prospects, M., 1982.

S. T. Melyukhin.

Philosophical encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editors: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983 .

SPACE AND TIME

general forms of the existence of matter, namely the forms of coordination of material objects and phenomena. Dialectic and modern show that P. and century. cannot exist outside of matter and independently of it. The difference between these forms from each other is that space is everything. general form coexistence of bodies, time is a universal form of change of phenomena. According to Engels, to be in space means to be in the form of the location of one next to the other, to exist in time means to be in the form of a sequence of one after the other. Space is a form of coordination of various coexisting objects and phenomena, which consists in the fact that the latter are determined. are located relative to each other and, constituting various parts of one or another system, are in a certain way. quantities. relationship to each other. Time is a general form of coordination of phenomena, successive states of material objects, which consists in the fact that each (state), constituting one or another part of the process taking place in the object, is in a certain. quantities. relations to other phenomena (states).

Spaces characteristics are places of objects (when objects are far away from each other or objects are small, these places can be considered as "points" of space), distances between places, angles between different directions, in which objects are located (an individual object is characterized by length and shape, which are determined by the distances between the parts of the object and their orientation). Time characteristics - "moments", in which phenomena occur, the duration (duration) of processes. The relationship between these spaces.-time. quantities called metric. There are also qualities., Topolog and h. Characteristics - "contact" of various objects or processes, the order of their arrangement, symmetry.

Space-time relations are subject to specific. patterns. In accordance with the presence of inextricably linked opposite sides of material objects and processes - integrity and differentiation, stability and variability, and in space-time. relations distinguish, on the one hand, and duration, with - the order of coexistence and change of phenomena. The extension of the object and the duration of the state (its "lifetime") come to the fore when considering the object or state as a whole; "order" comes to the fore when considering the relationship of parts (object or state) or the relationship of different objects.

According to the dialectic materialism, P. and c. are forms of being of differentiated objects and processes. This determines the universal character of space-time. relationships and patterns. With the deepening of knowledge about matter and motion, the scientific knowledge deepens and changes. ideas about P. and c. Therefore, to understand the meaning of the newly discovered patterns of P. and century. is possible only by establishing their connections with the laws of interaction and motion of matter. An example is non-Euclidean geometry, the real meaning of which became clear only after the discovery of relativistic theories of the gravitational field.

Direct P.'s unity and century. acts in the motion of matter; simplest form movement - movement - is characterized by quantities that include various ratios of P. and c. Modern (see. Relativity theory) discovered a deeper unity of P. and V., expressed in a joint regular change in space.-time. characteristics of systems when the motion of the latter changes, as well as the dependence of these quantities on the concentration of matter (mass) in the environment.

From pure spaces. (geometric) relations are dealt with only when it is possible to abstract from the motion of bodies and their parts. Then the world appears as a set of immutable ideally rigid bodies located outside each other, and foreign relations these bodies are reduced to spatial. With pure time. relations are dealt with in the case when it is possible to abstract from the variety of coexisting objects; then the only "point" object experiences state changes characterized by different durations.

In the real process of measuring spaces. and time quantities are used by k.-l. reference system.

P.'s concepts and century. are a necessary component of the picture of the world as a whole and therefore are included in philosophy. The doctrine about P. and century. deepens and develops along with the development of the worldview in general, but especially natural science and, above all, physics. This is explained by the fact that the properties of P. and c. have quite creatures. value for physical regularities, to-rye are often expressed in the form of physical dependencies. quantities from space.-time. coordinates; in addition, accurate measurements of space.-time. quantities are produced using physical. devices. It was the development of physics in the 20th century. led to a radical restructuring of science. ideas about P. and century. From other sciences means. a role in progress of the doctrine about P. and century. played in particular.

The development of physics, geometry and astronomy in the 20th century. confirmed the correctness of the views of the dialectic. materialism in P. and in. In turn, the dialectical-materialistic P.'s concept and century. allows us to give a correct interpretation of the modern. physical teachings about P. and v., to reveal the unsatisfactory nature of both the subjectivist understanding of this doctrine and attempts to “develop” it, tearing off P. and v. from matter.

Space-time relationships are not only general patterns, but also specific, characteristic of objects of a particular class, since these relations are determined by the structure of the material object, its internal. interactions and processes. Therefore, such characteristics as the dimensions of an object (in particular, its shape), lifetime, rhythms of processes, types of symmetry are creatures. object parameters of this type, which also depend on the conditions in which it exists. Particularly important and specific are space-time. relations in such complex developing objects as biological. or society. In this sense it is possible to speak about individual P. and century. such objects (eg, about biological or social time).

Basic concepts of P. and century. The most important philosophy relating to P. and V., this is about the essence of P. and V., i.e. the relationship of these forms of being to matter, as well as the objectivity of space.-time. relationships and patterns.

Throughout almost the entire history of natural science; and philosophy, there were two fundamentals. P.'s concepts and century. One of them comes from the ancient atomists - Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius, who introduced empty space and considered it as homogeneous and (but not isotropic); the concept of time was then developed extremely poorly. In time, this concept was developed by Newton, who cleared it of anthropomorphism. According to Newton, P. and V. are special principles that exist independently of matter and from each other. Space itself (abs. space) is a "receptacle of bodies", absolutely motionless, continuous, homogeneous (the same at all points) and isotropic (the same in all directions), permeable - not affecting matter and not being affected by it, and infinite ; has three dimensions. From abs. space Newton distinguished the length of bodies - their main. , thanks to which they occupy a definite. places in abs. space, coincide with these places. Extension, according to Newton, if we talk about the simplest particles (atoms), is the original, primary property that does not require explanation. Abs. Space, due to the indistinguishability of its parts, is immeasurable and unknowable. The positions of bodies and the distances between them can only be determined in relation to other bodies. Dr. In other words, science deals only with relative space.

Time in Newton's concept is itself absolute and independent of anything, pure duration as such, flowing uniformly from past to future. It is an empty "receptacle of events", which may or may not fill it; the course of events does not affect the passage of time. Time is universal, one-dimensional, continuous, infinite, homogeneous (everywhere is the same). From abs. time, also immeasurable, Newton distinguished relates. time. Time measurement is carried out only with the help of hours, i.e. movements, to-rye are fairly uniform. P. and c. in Newton's concept are independent of each other. Independence of P. and century. manifested primarily in the fact that the distance between two points and; the time interval between two events retain their values ​​independently of each other in any frame of reference, and the ratios of these quantities or the speed of bodies can be any.

Newton criticized the idea of ​​Descartes about the filled world space and about the identity of extended matter and space.

The concept of P. and V., developed by Newton, was dominant in natural science throughout the 17th–19th centuries. it relied on the science of that time - Euclidean geometry and classical. mechanics. The laws of Newtonian mechanics are valid only in inertial frames of reference. This isolation of inertial systems was explained by the fact that they move inertially precisely with respect to abs. P. and c. and best match the latter. We can say that clocks in such systems show uniformly current absolutely universal time, and rigid bodies forming spaces. The "skeleton" of such a system does not deform during inertial motion. Of course, the measured speed of a body may not coincide with its abs. speed, however mechanics, relating acceleration to the force that creates it, remains unchanged in any inertial frame; invariant (unchanging) are also acceleration, and in themselves. If, however, we pass to arbitrarily moving accelerated frames of reference, then the laws of the classical the mechanics are wrong. From here it was made that only when the movement of bodies is attributed to abs. P. and c. the laws of mechanics are obtained, which are justified in practice.

Newton's concept of P. and in. corresponded to all physical. picture of the world of that era, in particular philosophy. the notion of matter as initially extended and inert. Creatures. the contradiction of Newton's concept was that abs. P. and c. remained in it unknowable by experience. According to the principle of relativity classical. mechanics, all inertial reference systems are equal and it is impossible to distinguish whether the system moves with respect to abs. P. and c. or rest. This served as an argument for supporters of the opposite concept of P. and V., the foundations of which were also formulated in antiquity by Aristotle. Space, according to Aristotle, is a collection of places of bodies, and time is "movements"; time, unlike motion, always flows uniformly. In modern times, t. sp. Aristotle was developed (clearing it from teleology) by Leibniz, who also relied on certain ideas of Descartes. The peculiarity of the Leibniz concept of P. and V. consists in the fact that it rejects P. and c. how about independent. principles of being, existing along with matter and independently of it. According to Leibniz, space is the order of the mutual arrangement of many individual bodies that exist outside of each other, time is the order of successive phenomena or states of bodies. At the same time, Leibniz later included in the concept of order also the concept of relates. quantities. The idea of ​​the length of the department. the body, considered without regard to others, according to the concept of Leibniz, is untenable. Space is ("order"), applicable only to many. bodies, to the "row" of bodies. You can only talk about relates. the size of the given body, in comparison with the sizes of other bodies. If other bodies did not exist, then it would be impossible to talk about the extent of this body. The extension of the body makes sense only insofar as the body is considered as part of the world. The same can be said about duration: the concept of duration is applicable to otd. phenomenon insofar as it is considered as a link in a single chain of events. The extension of any object, according to Leibniz, is not a primary property, but is due to the repulsive forces acting inside the object; domestic and external interactions determine the duration of the state; as for the very nature of time as an order of changing phenomena, it reflects their cause and effect. connection.

Logically, Leibniz's concept is linked to his entire philosophy. the system as a whole. Main Leibniz considered the property of particles to be the desire for action and movement. The ideas about matter of the ancient atomists and Newton, who considered the world as a conglomeration of independent particles, connected together only by random collisions or mystical. long-range forces, Leibniz considered unsatisfactory. idea abs. atomism does not explain the integrity of objects, their ext. consistency, it contradicts "harmony", the unity of the world. True, Leibniz understands harmony and activity in an idealistic, teleological way. spirit: atoms are monads that spiritually represent the world. But the science of that era did not have data that would make it possible to rationally explain "" the unity and integrity of material objects. However, Leibniz's concept of P. and in. did not play creatures. roles in the natural sciences of the 17th–19th centuries, because she could not give an answer to the questions posed by the science of that era. First of all, Leibniz's views on space seemed to contradict the existence of a vacuum (it was only after the discovery of the field in the 19th century that the problem of vacuum appeared in a new light); in addition, they clearly contradicted the general belief in the uniqueness and universality of Euclidean geometry (if geometry is determined by the nature of forces, then the possibility of other spaces. relations than Euclidean ones is conceivable); finally, the concept of Leibniz seemed irreconcilable with the classic. mechanics, since the recognition of the pure relativity of motion does not give an explanation of the advantages, the role of inertial systems. Leibniz's answer, in which he pointed to stable ("fixed") states of matter, which serve as the "basis" of P. and V., was not understood at that time. In general, Leibniz's one-sided emphasis on "order" as Ch. P.'s characteristics and century. seemed incompatible with the objectivity and "invariance" of the metric. properties of P. and century, on which science relied. Leibniz's amendments, which, in the course of a discussion with Newton's student Clark, also included metric in the concept of "order". relations were not taken into . Thus, modern Leibniz was in conflict with his concept of P. and V., which was built on a much broader philosophy. basis. Only two centuries later began the accumulation of scientific. facts that spoke in her favour. P.'s concepts and century. in philosophy and natural science in the 18th–19th centuries.

Materialist philosophers of the 18th–19th centuries solved the problem of P. and c. mainly in the spirit of the concepts of Newton or Leibniz, although, as, they did not fully accept c.-l. of them. Some philosophers of the 17th century. (for example, Locke) under the influence of the successes of mechanics moved from the concept of Leibniz to the concept of Newton. Most materialist philosophers opposed Newtonian empty space. Even Toland pointed out that the idea of ​​emptiness is connected with the view of matter as inert, inactive. Diderot held the same views. Even further in the criticism of Newton was Boshkovich, who considered matter as consisting of particles - centers of force; the concept of extension, according to Boshkovich, is not applicable to otd. particle, but only to a system of particles.

Closer to the concept of Leibniz was Hegel. He criticizes Newton's idea of ​​time as a stream that carries everything in its course, and of an empty, unfilled space. At the same time, Hegel does not agree with the reduction of space to the order of things; space does not coincide with the extent of individual things, it has its own specifics. relationships and patterns. Hegel emphasizes the unity of P. and in. as moments of motion. Only in representation, he writes, P. and v. completely separate from each other. However, arguing that the concept of matter is derived from the concepts of P. and V., Hegel loses, already expressed by Leibniz, that spaces. and time relationships are defined by interaction.

One of the most noticeable. 19th century discoveries was the creation of non-Euclidean geometry by Lobachevsky, Bolyai and Riemann (see Space in mathematics).

Non-Euclidean geometry contradicted the Newtonian concept of P. and in. Rejecting it, Lobachevsky argued that the geometric properties, being the most general physical. properties are determined by the general nature of the forces that form the body.

In the concepts of subjective idealists and agnostics, the problems of P. and c. are reduced to ch. arr. to the question of P.'s attitude and century. to consciousness and perception. Berkeley rejected Newtonian abs. P. and V., but considered spaces. and time relations are subjectivistic, as an order of perceptions. It is clear that in this case there was no question of objective geometrical and mechanical laws. Therefore, the Berkeleian t. sp. did not play creatures. role in the development of science. ideas about P. and century. Things were different with the views of Kant, who at first adjoined the concept of Leibniz. The contradiction of this concept and natural science. views of that time led Kant to accept the Newtonian concept and to seek to substantiate it philosophically. The main thing here was the announcement of P. and v. a priori forms of human. contemplation. Kant's views on P. and in. found many supporters at the end of the 18th century. - 1st floor. 19th century Their inconsistency was proved only after the creation and adoption of non-Euclidean geometry: the very possibility of different geometries and determining their areas of application on the basis of experience rejects.

The crisis of mechanistic natural sciences at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. led to the revival on a new basis of subjectivist views on P. and century. Criticizing the concept of Newton, Mach again developed a look at P. and in. as an "order of perceptions", emphasizing the experiential origin of the axioms of geometry. But Mach was understood subjectivistically, therefore both the geometry of Euclid, and the geometry of Lobachevsky and Riemann are considered by him simply as different ways of describing spaces. ratios. It is not surprising, therefore, that Mach reacted negatively to the theory of relativity. Criticism of the subjectivist views of Mach pa P. and V. was given by Lenin in Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.

Development of ideas about P. and century. in the 20th century Metric properties of P. and c. A fundamental change in physical ideas about matter (first of all, the discovery of physical fields - see Physical field) led to a radical restructuring of the doctrine of P. and in. Modern physical P. and V. - the theory of relativity - showed that in the transition from one frame of reference to another, moving relative to the first, spaces. and time quantities (distances, angles, time intervals, frequencies) change. Phenomena that are simultaneous in one frame of reference are not simultaneous in another. Remains unchanged in the transition from one reference system to another only space.-time. interval between events. The theory of relativity introduced a new concept - "space-time" as a single form of coordination of phenomena. The division of coordination into purely spatial and purely temporal turns out to be relative: events that coexist in one system (coordinated only spatially, located in different places), in another system are also sequential in time (however, the sequence itself in time of such events, which can be bound by the relationship of cause and effect, cannot change). Thus, distances and durations acquire complete certainty only in one or another frame of reference.

From what has been said, it inevitably follows that the Newtonian concept of abs. P. and c. The theory of relativity is logically irreconcilable with the idea of ​​empty space, which has "own." dimensions, and with the idea of ​​empty time, which has "own." duration. Modern physics confirmed the correctness of the concept of P. and V., coming from Leibniz and further developed by the dialectic. materialism. The theory of relativity has shown what exactly plays the role of physical. agent, through which the space-time is carried out. phenomena. This coordination is such that it is possible to speak about "individual", or local, P. and century. for every closed system.

The next step in the development of physics. ideas about P. and century. was made by the general theory of relativity. According to this theory, inertial systems, occupying a special place among any possible reference systems (only in such systems, the conservation laws are true), are distinguished not by the fact that they are inertial with respect to abs. P. and V., as the followers of Newton believed, but by the fact that material bodies, the basis of such systems, do not experience noticeable external influences and make free movement in the gravitational field. Hence it follows that inertial system is such only locally, both in space and in time. relation, i.e. only in relation to a limited range of phenomena. So it was allowed, which at one time could not resolve the concept of Leibniz. According to the general theory of relativity, the gravitational field manifests itself in the nature of the connection between spaces. and time quantities, or in the space-time metric. T. n. the curvature of space-time, which determines their metric (geometry), depends on the distribution and movement of matter - the source of the gravitational field, and this geometry is not Euclidean, but Riemannian. In the gravitational field, there is a different course of time (the rate of processes) in different points fields; in different places of the field, the distances separating these events are also different. In a gravitational field, it is impossible to synchronize clocks throughout space. Only in static the gravitational field could exist "world", with its "world" time in the entire system, but such a system would be local, not universal. A change in the rate of processes (the course of time) occurs, in particular, with a smooth acceleration (or deceleration) of the system. This creates an opportunity to influence the local "course of time".

Further development of the general theory of relativity is associated with cosmological. problems - the structure of P. and c. in the observable part of the world as a whole, with a zero "background", in relation to which the metric of space-time changes in the gravitational field (A. A. Fridman). The "background" metric is determined by the average density and pressure in the "world". The assumption about the changing metric of our part of the world was confirmed by the redshift discovered by Hubble.

It is quite clear that all the objects around us have certain dimensions (width-height-length - the parameters of their extension in space), they move (change, move) relative to each other or together with the planet Earth - in relation to other cosmic bodies: stars, planets, constellations, galaxies. In the same way, all objects change (move, move) in time: they arise in the process of interaction of material formations, develop and pass from one form to another.

Therefore, space and time are universal forms of being - attributes - of material systems. There cannot be an object that would be outside of space and time, just as there is no space and time existing on their own, outside of constantly moving (changing) matter.

In the history of philosophy, two concepts have developed regarding the understanding of space and time, which can be designated as the concepts of Democritus-Newton (substantial) and Aristotle-Leibniz (relational). Their essence is to clarify the question: in what relation are space and time to matter.

Substantial concept. It evolved in a metaphysical way in accordance with the principles classical mechanics, which ancient thinkers intuitively assumed, and fundamentally substantiated in the first quarter of the 18th century by Isaac Newton. Space was considered as an infinite empty extension containing all bodies (objects). Time considered as a uniform flow of duration, independent of any processes, it is absolute. Matter exists by itself and, as it were, "immersed" in space and time. Accordingly, the relationship between space, time and matter was presented as a relationship between independent substances.

Relational concept(lat.- relative). It originated in line with the dialectical tradition - Aristotle, Leibniz, Hegel; was formulated in dialectical materialism and finally confirmed by Einstein's theory of relativity, which revealed the direct connection of space and time with moving matter and with each other. The fundamental conclusion following from the theory of relativity read: space and time do not exist without matter, their metric properties are created by the distribution and interaction of material masses, that is, by gravity. Einstein himself, answering a question about the essence of his theory, said that they used to believe that if by some miracle all material things suddenly disappeared, then space and time would remain. According to the theory of relativity, space and time would disappear along with things.

Einstein Albert(1879-1955), theoretical physicist, one of the founders of modern physics. Born in Germany in a wealthy Jewish family, from 1893 he lived in Switzerland. In 1900 he graduated from the Polytechnic in Zurich, 1902-1909 worked at the patent office in Bern. Later he was engaged in scientific and pedagogical work at the Bern, Geneva, Prague and Berlin universities. Created private (1905) and general (1907-1916) theories of relativity. He discovered the law of interaction of mass and energy. The author of fundamental works on the quantum theory of matter and field: he introduced the concept of a quantum of light as a "portion" of light, in the form of which it exists, subsequently called a photon (the word "photon" itself was introduced into scientific circulation in 1926, physicist N. Lewis), established the laws of the photoelectric effect, the basic law of photochemistry, and predicted induced radiation. He developed the statistical theory of Brownian motion, laying the foundations for the theory of fluctuations, created Bose-Einstein quantum statistics. Nobel laureate in 1921 for his work in theoretical physics. Paradox: in 1907, Einstein participated in the competition in the Department of Theoretical Physics of the University of Vienna for the position of Privatdozent, presenting as competitive work published an article by him, on the new at that time scientific views in the field of quantum phenomena: the faculty recognized the work as unsatisfactory, and 14 years later, the Nobel Committee awarded him their prize for these studies. Persecuted by the Nazis for his ideological struggle against fascism, Einstein emigrated to the United States in 1933, where he worked on the problems of cosmology and unified field theory. In 1940, he participated in writing a collective letter from physicists to US President F. Roosevelt about the danger to the planet created in Germany nuclear weapons, which stimulated the American nuclear tests. Foreign corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1922), foreign honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1926). One of the initiators of the creation of the State of Israel.

Einstein's ideas served as the basis for presenting a materialistic picture of the world, based on the unity of space and time with matter and its movement. According to Einstein, his philosophical outlook was influenced by the views of Kant, Hume and Mach. feature own worldview became rationalism. Einstein's rationalism found expression in his views on the ideal of physical theory, which he thought of as unified theory geometrized field. His ontological rationalism consisted in presenting nature as strictly deterministic system including uncertainty and randomness.

What is space and time in philosophical terms?

Space - a form of existence of matter (attribute) with the property of the extension of all components interacting in time. (A component can be either a separate object (body), or a structure, or even a system, depending on functional approach to space.)

Time. - a form of existence of matter (attribute) with the properties of duration and sequence of changing states in space.

All properties of space and time are inseparable, interconnected with material formations (bodies, objects, structures, systems), within and between which certain forms of movement reside and develop. Exist general, as well as special properties of space and time.

General properties of space:

• - objectivity;
• - infinity;
• - relationship with time and movement;
• - length;
• - unity of discontinuity and continuity: discontinuity is relative to two (or several) interacting systems in space; continuity is absolute, because space has a connection, there can be no discreteness in it.

General properties of time:

• - objectivity;
• - eternity;
• - relationship with space and movement;
• - dependence on the structural characteristics of material systems;
• - the unity of discontinuity and continuity: time has no natural objective breaks, it is all-encompassing and flows even where spatial voids can form, therefore a connected approach is characteristic of all processes and phenomena in time, since they are interconnected potentially and actually: the past - the present is the future.

Special properties of space and time:

• - for space - three-dimensionality (height-width-length), symmetry and asymmetry, shapes and sizes, location, distance between objects, distribution of matter, field and space vacuum;
• - for time - one-dimensionality, asymmetry, irreversibility, that is, the direction is always from the past to the future, the rhythm of processes, the rate of state change, non-repeatability, duration.

With regard to infinity, as a general property of space and time, an explanation is needed. Since matter is absolute, uncreated and indestructible, it exists forever, and eternity is the infinity of time, regardless of its intervals: from seconds to universal epochs, and it does not matter for which particular material systems. Therefore, any assumptions of the finiteness of time will inevitably lead either to theological hypotheses about the creation of the world and time by God, or to idealistic concepts of the universe.

Matter is infinite in its space-time forms of being. From the theoretical principles of astrophysics and astronomy, it follows that the spectral lines of the galaxies of the Universe are shifted to the red side of the spectrum, and this shift indicates their mutual separation from each other. This conclusion follows from the theory big bang". The time of this event, which gives rise to universal life, is also determined - approximately 14 billion years. Having appeared from the cosmic vacuum, a certain nebula, representing a material substance, exploded, and its fragments began to scatter in a synergistic vortex with tremendous speed. From these fragments subsequently began to form stars, then galaxy, which continued to move by inertia created by a substantial explosion, expanding the space of the Universe. There are natural scientific reasons to believe that the proposed spatial expansion is not only an intragalactic process, but in the Universe, in addition to our Metagalaxy, there are countless others. space systems. From a philosophical point of view, this judgment is an objective fact, since in the material world, in its infinite space-time forms, there are a variety of structural formations of matter with multidimensional elements, including social organization. But the classic question for the Universe and the Earth remains - how will the natural material process in time and space proceed further?

There are several options:

• - first- the movement, which was initiated as a result of the "Big Bang" will continue indefinitely;
• - second- the movement, having begun at the moment of the "Big Bang", will expand our Universe to infinity, then there will be a slowdown and a stop. But the energy of matter (perhaps the energy of cosmic vacuum, as a type of matter) will not be enough for compression and the Universe will "freeze" - only intrauniverse processes will occur; - the third- the speed of the galaxies will gradually slow down, up to a complete stop, and then they will move back to the point of their primary "pop", where they will disappear, dissolving in the cosmic vacuum, and with them social matter will be transformed into abiotics on those planets where it existed. The next stage in the development of matter is a new Universal explosion. To clarify these options, we will make a clarification: at the end of the 20th century. scientists from a number of countries conducted a joint experiment within the framework of the program "Observation of Extragalactic Radiation from a Balloon and Research of Geomagnetism". findings scientific expedition turned out to be unique: our Universe is arranged in such a way that kinetic energy its extensions and potential energy substances in it are balanced. This means that it is flat and built according to the geometry of Euclid (3rd century BC), and not B. Riemann (1826-1866) and N. Lobachevsky (1792-1856). Three very peculiar geometrically substantiated points of view of mathematical thinkers predicted not only the possible shape of the Universe, they determined its fate in time and space. Experimental scientists came to the conclusion that if our Universe is built according to B. Riemann, like a ball, it should expand, reaching the maximum radius of curvature, then it will begin to shrink and eventually collapse. According to the geometry of N. Lobachevsky (ellipse, curvilinear motion), the Universe will expand indefinitely, and after an infinite time it will retain a certain speed. According to Euclid's geometry, the Universe must also expand indefinitely, but the expansion rate will certainly fall until it becomes equal to zero. Then the universe will stretch to infinity. The main thing here is that the expansion of the Universe will never be replaced by contraction, for this it simply does not have enough matter. It will develop in eternity. This is today the natural-scientific and philosophical answer to the problem of the existence of the Universe and the existence of man in it.

Euclid(III century BC), ancient Greek mathematician. Worked in Alexandria. The main work "Beginning" (15 books), containing the basics ancient mathematics- in the plane, elementary geometry, number theory, general theory of relations and the method of determining areas and volumes, which included elements of the theory of limits.

Lobachevsky Nikolay Ivanovich(1792-1856), Russian mathematician, creator of non-Euclidean geometry, works on algebra, mathematical analysis, probability theory, mechanics, physics and astronomy. Was born November 20 (December 1) 1792 in Nizhny Novgorod. Studied at Kazan University. In 1811 he received a master's degree, in 1814 he became an adjunct, in 1816 an extraordinary, in 1822 an ordinary professor. He was in charge of the university library, was the curator of the museum, from 1827 to 1846 he was the rector of Kazan University. His mathematical discovery, proving that there is more than one "true" geometry (1826), has not received scientific recognition. In 1832, during the discussion at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences of the idea of ​​"imaginary" (the term of N. Lobachevsky; the concept of "non-Euclidean geometry" was later introduced into scientific circulation by the German mathematician K. Gauss) geometry, authoritative mathematicians spoke out against it, as unworthy of the attention of members of the academy N. Ostrogradsky and V. Bunyakovsky; sharp criticism of Lobachevsky's discovery continued in the replicated journal of F. Bulgarin and ended with his removal in 1846 (due to a combination of circumstances) from the post of rector of the university, dismissal from the post of professor and other university positions. Only in the 2nd half 19th century the discovery of N. Lobachevsky was duly appreciated by the scientific community, which made it possible to turn over the existing more than 2 thousand years Euclid's doctrine of the nature of space. In 1993, the N.I. Lobachevsky. Name N.I. Lobachevsky was assigned to the Nizhny Novgorod State University.

Riemann Bernhard(1826-1866), German mathematician who laid the foundation for the geometric direction in the theory of analytic functions. He considered geometry as the doctrine of continuous collections of any homogeneous objects (manifolds). He introduced the so-called Riemannian spaces and developed their theory: on a circle - Riemannian geometry. He put forward a number of basic ideas of typology. known own work on algebraic functions, analytic theory of differential equations, distribution of prime numbers, trigonometric series and integral theory. Riemannian geometry (1854) studies properties multidimensional spaces, in small domains of which the Euclidean geometry holds.

We also note that the study of spatio-temporal characteristics human being, as well as its natural factors - this is the prerogative not only of philosophy, it is carried out by many sciences and applied disciplines. Another question is that philosophy in matters of spatio-temporal existence provides answers to universal human and natural problems, while private sciences are focused on the description and analysis of subject problems. Let's look at some of them:

• - story - historical time is incomparable with physical time, as it has its own structure, in which the subjects of history master time and space, organizing events and simultaneously experiencing them. historical time calculated in generations, centuries, epochs. Its special property is that certain social events that have remained in the memory of generations and played a significant role are taken as a starting point. The theory of historical time compression with spatial dynamics and the results of its passage for mankind is interesting: Antique times covered five millennia (managing a primitive economy); The Middle Ages "fit" already in one thousand years (the development of crafts); New time took only 300 years (a leap in the natural sciences, the formation of production); Newest time within a hundred years, and a lot of events happened (the emergence of super-technologies, powerful social dynamics). Today, history is literally being created before our eyes, many people simply do not have time to adapt to the rapidly changing conditions of life. Entire generations of people therefore do not understand each other, because they lived and live in essence in different historical periods of time adapted by them in different ways;
• - political science - political time. It is a unique social phenomenon both in its physical and real power manifestation. In its formal manifestation, political time is a specific existence of peoples, nations, countries, states, commonwealths, unions, where political domination is exercised, political regimes operate, civil liberties are realized, where the political and legal mechanisms of institutional regulation have undergone a long adaptation. Politics, reflecting attitudes about power, becomes real time when it satisfies social needs;
• - sociology - social time. In the social space, we are seeing an acceleration in the pace human development, the rate of socialization caused by social phenomena, and therefore everything now fits into the same unit of actual time large quantity social phenomena: in the family, in the study group, in the professional team, in state structure. Another question is when we evaluate a social phenomenon from a social point of view (institutionally, then the passage of time is one) and from personal point vision, when a person, an individual solves his personal problems (here the flow of time processes is different - personified);
• - biology - biological time. Living structures have special properties of space and time. Biological time is the time of life of organisms from protein to primates, that is, to humans. Biological time is the time when metabolism occurs in a living organism, contributing to its vital functions. Extending or shortening the life span of an organism is a multidimensional task. For man and the bioworld, it is global. Both people and animals are constantly faced with the problem of a possible reduction in the time of their functioning - an environmental threat. The technogenic process has embraced the entire civilization, this has both technical pluses and social minuses, which we will not analyze now, we will note only one fact for the human body - the curvature of the natural flow of time when transferring from "summer" to "winter" mode of operation and back. In the course of such a violent time shift, many people really suffer, especially the sick and the elderly, who will never be understood and supported by the state, which does not perceive biological time, and this is already the level of social time at the junction with political time;
• - psychology - psychological time. It is connected with the individual emotional experiences of a person. Tension, as it were, stretches time, and pleasure, joy are rather fleeting, they "condense" time. A person, acting one way or another, acts in two ways, both rationally and emotionally. His own Ego connects with the subconscious It and under the influence of public super ego, having a normative character, constitutes an individual psychological type behavior, that is, the motivation of actions, taking into account psychological time, can be quite diverse.