Note 63

What is time? Subjective and scientific time.

Time only exists insofar as it is used. It is the frame through which the progression of events is measured.

In science, it is a dimension of physical theory. It underlies the conception of physical systems as intelligible, time bound systems. It is both frame (as flow) and object (the relative speed of its flow).

In subjective thinking, time does not exist, but is inferred. It is the essence of the situational meaning of the concept of change itself. That is, there is no way of framing change except through time, at least in our imagination, and in our experience. Time just is a way of representing change.

Hence the idea of constant, whether identities, or substance, etc, depends on the kind of change that is envisioned. Identities are built as ways to conceive of change, and are constituted alongside the change which it is possible to envision them as underlying.

The specific forms which identity and change (time, mathematical operations) takes are mirror constructs, and the form which identities take are limited to what doesn't change, which is a negation of what changes, and hence can be envisioned to change. In other words, meaning lies in the change nexus, not the identity and its forms.