Reductionism With Respect To Time Analysis

In order to understand why it is that time cannot pass if nothing changes, one must first consider the structure of time itself. There are two differing ideas on what exactly time looks like. When thinking of a timeline, some see time as the line itself, and think that it exists whether there are events on it or not. Others, though, see time as being made up of the events that happen in it. If there are no events, then there is no time. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy introduces this idea by saying, “For, the thinking goes, if there could be a period of time without change, then it follows that time could exist without any events to fill it; but if, on the other hand, there could not be a period of time without change, then it must

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says, “This view is typically called either ‘Reductionism with Respect to Time’ or ‘Relationism with Respect to Time,’ since according to this view, all talk that appears to be about time can somehow be reduced to talk about temporal relations among things and events” and then goes on to tell the reader that the view that time is the line itself is called “Platonism with Respect to Time,” “Substantivalism with Respect to Time,” or “Absolutism with Respect to Time” (Markosian, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). To someone holding the Platonism with Respect to Time idea, it would make sense that time can pass if nothing changes, since they believe that time is independent of its events. However, to someone who holds the Relationism with Respect to Time belief, it would then follow that time cannot pass if nothing changes. Knowing these two differing approaches to time, one can see how the idea of whether or not time can pass if nothing changes is subject to such

Denis Corish offers another way of looking at this thought experiment in the article “Could Time be Change?” He writes:

But another assumption is entirely possible: time is not absolute but relative to things happening, to change - and if no change occurs, there is no time. This would lead us to conclude that, instead of a year of changeless time passing, in say region A, there is no time there, or only an instant during which nothing happens - which is no time at least in the sense of no time passing, no interval of time - while a year passes in, let us say, B. (Corish, Could Time be