SPACE, TIME 291 



to it a new element, necessarily destroys it." * Time also, 

 therefore, is considered by the individual to be a feature 

 or aspect of events — essentially like color or weight. Time 

 must be occupied by events, otherwise it is not time. 



Plurality. The plurality of space and time follows from 

 their relativity. That event which is always given, and with 

 which space and time become most intimately associated, is 

 the observer himself. His body is always present to deter- 

 mine location in space, and his consciousness, if not nature 

 itself, gives content to the temporal process. But just for 

 this very reason space and time come to be built around 

 him as a center. Space is for him the totality of relations of 

 distance and direction connecting the events of his experi- 

 ence; time is for him the totality of relations of before and 

 after, connecting the events in his experience. But no two 

 individuals live the same lives, nor experience the same 

 range of events. Hence, at the empirical level one may say 

 that there are as many space systems and as many time 

 systems as there are individuals. What I see at this moment 

 is not identical with what you see, even though we are 

 located at approximately the same point in space; if we are 

 widely separated our experiences may be quite diverse. 

 But my memories and expectations also differ from yours, 

 even though we are contemporaries; if we are widely sep- 

 arated in time our total experiences may be quite diverse. 

 The only means of linking our spatial and temporal systems 

 together is through the medium of a common event, i.e., 

 an event which is approximately "here-now" for both of us. 

 Clearly, only by means of the discovery of such an event 

 can the common space and the common time of science be 

 derived. Hence arise the difficulties of the relativity theory, 

 to which reference will be made later. 



Discreteness. The characterization of empirical space and 

 time as discontinuous is subject to the same ambiguity 

 which appeared in the characterization of scientific space 



1 D. H. Parker, Self and Nature (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1917), pp. 96- 

 97. 



