SPACE, TIME 297 



misleading, since there is probably a sense in which each 

 of the alternatives is real, it indicates the direction in which 

 one must look for the answer. Obviously empirical space 

 and time are in some sense closer to the facts, and hence 

 less open to conjecture, than scientific space and time. 

 Scientific space and time, on the other hand, are in a sim- 

 ilar sense hypothetical or constructional. The problem, 

 then, is to show how scientific space and time, as derivative, 

 are obtainable from empirical space and time, as primitive. 

 If scientific space and time are constructional in character, 

 they can be given content only in terms of their operational 

 derivations. Hence one has not properly understood what 

 scientific space and time mean until he has described the 

 techniques by which they are obtainable from more obvious 

 data. 



From relativity to objectivity. Empirical space and time 

 are transformed from relativity to objectivity by an act of 

 abstraction, or of neglect. What is given is always a complex 

 consisting of an event in space and time. Through an act 

 of isolation the spatial and temporal aspects of the complex 

 are singled out for attention, since they seem permanent 

 while events vary in content. From this it is but a short 

 step to the realization that the essence of the complex is its 

 spatial and temporal features, and that these are not in 

 any way affected by the events. All of this is accomplished 

 through an act of generalization, by which space and time 

 are presumably given a wider range of application; empty 

 space and empty time, which at the empirical level are 

 impossible, become possibilities at the scientific level. Hence 

 arises the notion of large containers, of a spatial and a 

 temporal kind, in which events may be located. This is 

 the objective space and time of science. 



From plurality to singleness. The many spaces and times 

 are united into a single space and time by an operation of 

 correlation. The problem is to eliminate the privacy of 

 my space and my time by finding an event which is in my 

 space and time but also may be in yours as well. Correlation 



