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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

224696

"Now" has an infinitesimal positive duration

Reuben Hersh

pp. 31-37

Abstract

Authors writing about Time have struggled to choose between a scientific instantaneous Now, with zero duration, or an experiential Now with some undefined small positive duration. The difficulty is resolved by the infinitesimal of Abraham Robinson. This article offers the nonstandard or "hyperreal" line as a model for Time, thereby to resolve a persistent controversy of the meaning of "Now." As a "monad" in the Leibnizian time axis, "Now" is a time interval shorter than any standard positive interval, yet longer than any infinitesimal.

Publication details

Published in:

Sriraman Bharath (2017) Humanizing mathematics and its philosophy: essays celebrating the 90th birthday of Reuben Hersh. Basel, Birkhäuser.

Pages: 31-37

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-61231-7_4

Full citation:

Hersh Reuben (2017) „"Now" has an infinitesimal positive duration“, In: B. Sriraman (ed.), Humanizing mathematics and its philosophy, Basel, Birkhäuser, 31–37.