时间

时间(time)

定量或可测量的周期。更概括地说，时间是少了空间维度的连续体。哲学家专注思考时间与自然世界的关联及时间和意识的关联这类广泛的问题，来探索时间的意义。采信时间绝对论的人认为时间就像一种容器，宇宙在里面存在并发生改变。而根据时间相对论，时间除了让自然宇宙改变之外就一无所有。现在认为时间不能从空间（参阅space-time）独立出来，绝大部分是因为爱因斯坦。有人主张爱因斯坦的相对论是站在时间相对论这边，其他人则认为它赞同时间绝对论。主要的争议在於时间与意识的关联广泛，时间或时间观点乃依赖有知觉的生物存在。通常将时间事件以过去、现在及未来的概念去思考，有些哲学家将其当成心灵决定的，其他人相信时间是独立观念，并且是过去、现在与未来世界的客观性质。亦请参阅geologic time、Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)、standard time、Universal Time。

English version：

time

Measured or measurable period. More broadly, it is a continuum that lacks spatial dimensions. Philosophers have sought an understanding of time by focusing on the broad questions of the relation between time and the physical world and the relation between time and consciousness. Those who adopt an absolutist theory of time regard it as a kind of container within which the universe exists and change takes place, and believe that its existence and properties are independent of the physical universe. According to the rival relationist theory, time is nothing over and above change in the physical universe. Largely because of Albert Einstein, it is now held that time cannot be treated in isolation from space (see space-time). Some argue that Einstein's theories of relativity vindicate relationist theories, others that they vindicate the absolutist theory. The primary issue concerning the relation between time and consciousness is the extent, if any, to which time or aspects of time depend on the existence of conscious beings. Events in time are normally thought of in terms of notions of past, present, and future, which some philosophers treat as mind-dependent; others believe that time is independent of perception and hold that past, present, and future are objective features of the world. See also geologic time, Greenwich Mean Time, standard time, Universal Time.