Abstract
Continuity of time appears to be obvious to the naive observer, but it is a misleading idea. This concept probably goes back to Isaac Newton and his overwhelming influence on psychophysics as well as basic physics. One underlying idea in psychophysics is that subjective reality is a direct reflection of objective reality. By understanding the transformation rules between objective and subjective reality as expressed in psychophysical laws, one can reconstruct subjective reality (e.g., Stevens 1951). Applying the same thesis to subjective time, we can go back directly to Newton, who stated in the beginning of his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica under Definitions:
“Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself and from its own nature, flows equably without relation to anything external, and by another name is called duration: relative, apparent, and common time, is some sensible and external (wether accurate or unequable) measure of duration by the means of motion, which is commonly used instead of true time; such as an hour, a day, a month, a year.”
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Pöppel, E. (1997). The Brain’s Way to Create “Nowness”. In: Atmanspacher, H., Ruhnau, E. (eds) Time, Temporality, Now. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60707-3_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60707-3_9
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