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Philosophy of space and time is the branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology, epistemology, and character of space and time. While such ideas have been central to philosophy from its inception, the philosophy of space and time was both an inspiration for and a central aspect of early analytic philosophy. The subject focuses on a number of basic issues, including whether or not time and space exist independently of the mind, whether they exist independently of one another, what accounts for time's apparently unidirectional flow, whether times other than the present moment exist, and questions about the nature of identity (particularly the nature of identity over time). ==Ancient and medieval views== The earliest recorded Western philosophy of time was expounded by the ancient Egyptian thinker Ptahhotep (c. 2650–2600 BC), who said, "Do not lessen the time of following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit." The ''Vedas'', the earliest texts on Indian philosophy and Hindu philosophy, dating back to the late 2nd millennium BC, describe ancient Hindu cosmology, in which the universe goes through repeated cycles of creation, destruction, and rebirth, with each cycle lasting 4,320,000 years.〔, ( Extract of page 225 )〕 Ancient Greek philosophers, including Parmenides and Heraclitus, wrote essays on the nature of time.〔Dagobert Runes, ''Dictionary of Philosophy'', p. 318〕 Incas regarded space and time as a single concept, named pacha ((ケチュア語:pacha), (アイマラ語:pacha)).〔Atuq Eusebio Manga Qespi, Instituto de lingüística y Cultura Amerindia de la Universidad de Valencia. (''Pacha: un concepto andino de espacio y tiempo'' ). Revísta española de Antropología Americana, 24, pp. 155–189. Edit. Complutense, Madrid. 1994〕〔Stephen Hart, (Peruvian Cultural Studies:Work in Progress )〕〔Paul Richard Steele, Catherine J. Allen, ''Handbook of Inca mythology'', p. 86, (ISBN 1-57607-354-8)〕 Plato, in the ''Timaeus'', identified time with the period of motion of the heavenly bodies, and space as that in which things come to be. Aristotle, in Book IV of his ''Physics'', defined time as the number of changes with respect to before and after, and the place of an object as the innermost motionless boundary of that which surrounds it. In Book 11 of St. Augustine's ''Confessions'', he ruminates on the nature of time, asking, "What then is time? If no one asks me, I know: if I wish to explain it to one that asketh, I know not." He goes on to comment on the difficulty of thinking about time, pointing out the inaccuracy of common speech: "For but few things are there of which we speak properly; of most things we speak improperly, still the things intended are understood." 〔St. Augustine, ''Confessions'', Book 11. http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/augconf/aug11.htm (Accessed 19/5/14).〕 But Augustine presented the first philosophical argument for the reality of Creation (against Aristotle) in the context of his discussion of time, saying that knowledge of time depends on the knowledge of the movement of things, and therefore time cannot be where there are no creatures to measure its passing (Confessions Book XI ¶30; City of God Book XI ch.6). In contrast to ancient Greek philosophers who believed that the universe had an infinite past with no beginning, medieval philosophers and theologians developed the concept of the universe having a finite past with a beginning. This view was inspired by the creation belief shared by the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Christian philosopher John Philoponus presented another early argument against the ancient Greek notion of an infinite past. His views were adopted by many, including, most notably, early Muslim philosopher Al-Kindi (Alkindus), Jewish philosopher Saadia Gaon (Saadia ben Joseph), and Muslim theologian Al-Ghazali (Algazel). They used his two logical arguments against an infinite past, the first being the "argument from the impossibility of the existence of an actual infinite", which states: :"An actual infinite cannot exist." :"An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite." :"∴ An infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist." The second argument, the "argument from the impossibility of completing an actual infinite by successive addition", states:〔 :"An actual infinite cannot be completed by successive addition." :"The temporal series of past events has been completed by successive addition." :"The temporal series of past events cannot be an actual infinite." Both arguments were adopted by later Christian philosophers and theologians, and the second argument in particular became more famous after it was adopted by Immanuel Kant in his thesis of the first antinomy concerning time.〔 In the early 11th century, the Muslim physicist Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen or Alhazen) discussed space perception and its epistemological implications in his ''Book of Optics'' (1021), he also rejected Aristotle's definition of ''topos'' (''Physics'' IV) by way of geometric demonstrations and defined place as a mathematical spatial extension.〔Nader El-Bizri, 'In Defence of the Sovereignty of Philosophy: al-Baghdadi's Critique of Ibn al-Haytham's Geometrisation of Place', ''Arabic Sciences and Philosophy'' 17 (2007), 57–80〕 His experimental proof of the intromission model of vision led to changes in the understanding of the visual perception of space, contrary to the previous emission theory of vision supported by Euclid and Ptolemy. In "tying the visual perception of space to prior bodily experience, Alhacen unequivocally rejected the intuitiveness of spatial perception and, therefore, the autonomy of vision. Without tangible notions of distance and size for correlation, sight can tell us next to nothing about such things." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「philosophy of space and time」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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