The Meaning of Time and Its Relation with Happiness

Introduction
Endless curiosity of humankind and continuous works and researches on the meaning of time most probably will never end till the end of mind. We all need to find a meaning of life, existance and whatever we named, so its the same for the meaning of time which makes us feel restless and forces minds irresistably to think about. Therefore, time is one of the matters of the philosophers and scientists for many years (over two and a half thousand years), and has been analysed by their different perspectives. Eventhough that long period of time, many questions about time still remained unanswered.For example: what time actually is; whether time exists when nothing is changing; why the time dimension has an arrow, but a space dimension does not; whether the future is real; how the metaphor of time's "flow" can be analysed and many more...

This paper is just a begining of a research work for me, to improve my inner comprehension of time, both with my general observations, experiences and philosophers’ ideas of the meaning of time. Giving a meaning to life has a very close relation with the meaning of time. There is an order in life; birth, school,work ect., death. The time-line, however we accept –as there are two different believes on whether it is linear or circular that will be mentioned later-, is the reality that we have to face. As the knowledge of death, the meaning of time becomes much more important to find out a meaning of ourown lives. The passion of living forever had and still has forced people to feel that something should be done; some cultures have had mummies, some people have an irresistable ambition to left a mark behind whether good or bad. The sense of time is divided into two; subjective time sense and objective time sense. For idealists, nothing exists independent from the mind. So in the attemps of finding the meaning of time, there is an acceptance of existence of subjectivity ; between the comprehension of physical time and psychological time.

The answer to the question of why we do have the need of the meaning and understanding of time is miscellenous, but it is definetly a need for adapting, feeling a little bit peaceful etc. Time passes by and it seems that nothing changes, but reality is totally different. Some people decides for the rest, sometimes the results of their decides are wars and violance, every second approximately three people are born and rain forests are decreased one hectare, many people catch a killer disease etc. So all these makes a differance in process whether we realize or not. At least these can be the reasons that we really have to get an understanding of the meaning of time. On the other hand description of time is not easy, as its meaning varies from people to people. There are many different perspectives and belief systems. Culture, statutes, location, technology are determinants. As well as variance of meaning (or the sense), its evaluation differs as well. In this case, we can see the correlation or proportion and lack of proportion…Plenty of time given,but gaining less satisfaction or few time given, few satisfaction had gained which is called bad organisation in the perspective of management of time. To foresee acceptable time given and gaining the best satisfaction is appreciated in the system of our times.


Ideas on “Time” definition
Aristotle had asked; “Whether, if soul (mind) did not exist, time would exist or not, is a question that may fairly be asked; for if there cannot be some one to count there cannot be anything that can be counted....” and remained it unanswered. Because according to him, it depends on whether time is the conscious numbering of movement or instead is just the capability of movement's being numbered were consciousness to exist.
According to St. Augustine, time is nothing in reality, but exists only in the mind's apprehension of that reality. In the 11th century, the Persian philosopher Avicenna doubted the existence of physical time, arguing that time exists only in the mind due to memory and expectation. In the 13th century, Duns Scotus disagreed with all these philosophers and recognized both physical and psychological time. Descartes’ time understanding was that a material body has the property of spatial extension, but no inherent capacity for temporal endurance, and that God by his continual action recreates the body at each successive instant. So, time is a divine process of recreation. In the 17th century, the English physicist Barrow rejected Aristotle's linkage between time and change by saying that time is something which exists independently of motion and which existed even before God created the matter in the universe. According to Barrow's student, Isaac Newton, time and space are an infinitely large container for all events, and the container exists with or without the events. Space and time are not material substances, but are like substances, in not being dependent on matter or motions or anything else except God. Leibniz objected and argued that time is not an entity existing independently of actual events. According to him, Newton had underemphasized the fact that time necessarily involves an ordering of any pair of non-simultaneous events. So, time needs events and this overall order is time. At the end of the 18th century, Kant suggested a subtle relationship between time and mind that our mind structures our perceptions, so that we know a priori that time is like a mathematical line. Time is a form of conscious experience.

Here comes another question to the minds; is time linear or circular? There are various answers to this question. Linear understanding first appeared in the writings of Hebrewa and the Zoroastrian Iranians. Seneca, the Roman writer, had that understanding too.Most Greeks and Romans believed that time is motion and believed cosmic motion was cyclical and the multiple rebirths of Socrates and some others was their example. In the circular time understanding, there is an assurance of reancarnation. Islamic and Christian theologians also adopted that time is linear with the universe being created at a definite moment in the past. In 1602, linear time was clearly formulated, by Francis Bacon. In 1687, Newton advocated linear time when he represented time mathematically by using a line rather than a circle. Barrow, Leibniz, Locke and Kant had promoted linear time consept. In 19th century, the idea of linear time was dominant in both science and philosophy in Europe. As same as Leibniz, Einstein had put forward that time is measured according to the order of the events and there is no indepent existing out of these events. After his theory of relativity, time is accepted as fourth dimension. In the 20th century, historian Bloch suggested that there are two kinds of time; universal linear time (that associated with everyday practice) and relative cyclical time that associated with ritual or ideology. Again in 20th century, Gödel and others discovered solutions to the equations of Einstein's theory of relativity that allowed closed loops of proper time. These casual loops or closed timelike curves allow us to go forward continuously in time until we arrive back into our past. Eventhough these discoveries, it is a general acceptance that we only go forward in time.
Is there a beginning or end of time? This is another question that had many different answers. For human being, whether it is believed that there is another world; heaven/hell or whether it is believed that every enegy just transforms to another structure or level or it is also believed that it is just a time-line we have and it has a beginning and an end. All these are associated with either religion or moral acceptance of one.
The queston of “What sort of ontological differences there are among the present, past and future” had divided philosophers; some of them,presentists, argues that only present is real and we realize it by our present experience and the rest argue both past and present are real, but as future has not come yet, future is not real yet.According to Henri Bergson, time is continuous, contrary Gaston Roupnel argued that life can be only comprehended in present time and there is nothing else left as there is no time because we create past and future with deaths and there is no life and no reality in death.
According to the common view, which is called eternalism or the block universe theory, there is no significant ontological difference among present, past and future .

The meaning of time for humankind in the perspectives of Process – Technology –
Time Management – Time Engineering & Relation between the meaning of time and happiness

People of Neolithic period had realized that seasons are very important in the case of agriculture, a regular annual cycle of cultivation is followed by the first farmers. Later, in the Chalcollithic period, civilization and first cities of world had arose and brought much planned organisations together with. So social life had changed. As they were much organized communities time began more and more important. There are many prehistoric and primitive calenders that still show us the same need; the understanding. They had divided time into pieces and named that in order to measure the time. Classic Age, Medieval Ages, Industry Revolution, Modernism, Post-modernism, “Millenium” pomp had brought many changes in the meaning. All those periods of time, social life organisations and technology created big changes in the live of people.

We simply cannot isolate and study any period ‘by itself’: it is always also its own past as well as our past. People’s thoughts and actions in the past were motivated by their own future, just like our own thought and actions (i.e regarding past remains and people) are motivated by our future. Past, present and future are thus constantly intermingled with each other. (Holtorf)*

Capitalism, consumption age really changed its meaning as reducing its meaning into saving and wastage. Choices and priorities still exist, but we really surrounded by social order that forces us to adapt. Whether we like or dislike the system, we have to face the facts. West culture especially promotes the idea that human being is a machine. This ignores the feelings and individualities and also forces people to leave their hearts and consciences. A new type of human being is created Mechanic Being( all we are teached to learn how to be, how to act, how we can be successful, how to look like etc.), roles, standartiazation of everything, packet programme lives, loves, marriages etc.
Nowadays, everybody is in a rush somehow. Suffering in traffic jam, suffering from depression and/or superficiality, system orders etc. had began our realities and rule us. We have to reach somewhere immediately, because time is money (tempus fugit). Being punctual is very important to give a good and professional impression. Every minute, that much good should be produced, there is a need of that much men or a technology. So humankind himself turned to be a machine. Live fast, eat fast, consume whatever exists; feelings, needs, time, people, friends… whatever we see. So being is lost in hisown time-line and sense. Time management books are on the shelves to guide people to get adapted to this system. Management of time or time engineering comes from this awareness of loosing the sense of being human and having miserable problems because of being bad in organizing time according to priorities and according to the musts. It is also promoted as it will bring benefits to the economy, not for the sake of human sense. On the other hand, it can be taking from the positive site that if we learn how to control and use our time, we can be much more free.
The most horrible thing I observe is that some people’s clock has been stopped because of a reason, such as a mourning, disappointment, shock, lack of insight, trauma ect.. So these people stay still and wait for something to be changed without their acts (living deaths) and waste their life by not using their time. Unfortunately, they do not live their lives free because of the missings or gaps that they could not fill and just sunk in the past and forgot today and have almost no expectations or hope associated with future.
Whether we like or not, whether we are good in or not, we have to be aware of time and have the control of ourown time to be good in time management. Personally, once again even in writting this paper, I failed in this case as being a bad manager of time; but still hopefull that I may succeed it in the future, because I was even worser than now in the past. So, we may say that even this can be a good sample for someone’s time-line .

In Being and Time, eventhough it remained unfinished, Martin Heidegger interpreted everyday experiences such as guilt and anxiety and connected them to the life styles, roles, identities. According to him, these life styles, roles and identities have always already been shaped by a past that we can never get behind. Self decisions never come true in future and life ends by an unaviodable death. He used three existentials; affectivity, telling and understanding as they characterize the way of things that are shown in past, present and future. So, the past filters the way things matter to us through our moods, the present uses the language and the future shapes the way things show up. Being that live together with others accepts whatever accepted by the others. So Being is not himself and ruled by the references of the others. Being takes over this without realizing. Therefore, Being gets lost in everybody’s/public’s decisions. Individuality ends, because the way of existance is dictated. Being is left behind alone in the time of decision, but there is no own individual decision. As everything is structured by the others before and there is responsibility of either everyone or no one. So life becomes easier. Everybody is the other and no one is not himself.

It becomes a way to feel better by saying it was not under my responsibility. Most usually people even call this type of situations fatalism. Taking no control of own life and then saying it is my fate seems quite funny. After doing the best, people can wait for the rest .In Muslim understanding it is called tevekkül, in this concept of course there is fatalism and leaving everything to God and God’s judgement, but it is a must that one should do whatever he could do and then has a right to wait good things. On the other hand, I became a little bit agree with Heidegger’s interpretation of guilt and anxiety. Sometimes people do punish themselves by not using their time properly, because there is a feeling behind it which is mainly guiltiness. Of course anxiety does not leave it alone and walks along with guiltiness. Maybe they feed each other and therefore they are together. Once an English lecturer told us that being an Christian is not something easy to get rid of these, because from the start, even as a baby, everybody is guilty and this is given by their culture because of the understanding that they are all seeds of a sin.
Why are all these acceptances for? Is it just to have an easier life or to get an acceptance from the public or to be appreciated by the others? Can’t we create our lives with ourown decisions by taking the responsibility of what we are doing? As we all live in a community, there are some rules, acceptances, appreciated behaviours and some disliked ones, obligations etc..Are those all fixed everywhere i.e. is there is an universal size of these? No, it still varies from culture to culture, eventhough some of the rules are almost universal. What about this question: are these for keeping peace in the community and order it or are these so strict that no one can do something individually? If the balance system is lost here, chaos unavoidable. So, there are many out puts in a Being life that structures his own life. The only thing he can do is to give a permission to himself to decide, whatever the general acceptances around, whatever he actually thinks.

Conclusion
Whatever time actually is, there are unlimited sense of meaning of time. Ourown decisions of the right to choose the way we want to see and live should be remained conscientiously free and untouched, but today, it is not so and it is not so easy. Eventhough being so much stressful and under pressure, I still want to keep myown right to build my own life and keep the happiness and peace conscientiously. So whatever the system is, the most important thing is to have a balance within the obligations and own desires, if we really want to go on living, as there is almost no way to be isolated and even if there is,it can be impossible,because it is not logical and good for the humankind as it is a social being.
Norms, general acceptances, maybe not easily but definitly can change. If someone wants some change, he should start from himself. Changing and giving a way to own life and future can take time and it can be associated with realization in mind. Time management can also be taken in this concept. Taking all the responsibilities and the auto control may be stressfull too. Creating own life needs courage, self confidence. One of the important things is that nothing stays still and everything changes. So we do not have luxury to freeze the time, we have to go on. Sometimes it can be miserable, but the point is that there will be nothing as the same, so happiness should be created or founded somehow with insight.


Notes:
*taken from Lucas’ The Archaeology of Time, p.57.


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This was written in June, 2005.