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Time in philosophy and in physics: From Kant and Einstein to Gödel

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For the physical world, the four dimensions are natural. But for the mind, there is no such natural coordinate system; time is the only natural frame of reference.

Gödel, conversation on 15.3.72

Abstract

The essay centers on Gödel's views on the place of our intuitive concept of time in philosophy and in physics. It presents my interpretation of his work on the theory of relativity, his observations on the relationship between Einstein's theory and Kantian philosophy, as well as some of the scattered remarks in his conversations with me in the seventies — namely, those on the philosophies of Leibniz, Hegel and Husserl — as a successor of Kant — in relation to their conceptions of time.

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Wang, H. Time in philosophy and in physics: From Kant and Einstein to Gödel. Synthese 102, 215–234 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01089801

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