Lecture
An object, on the side of its manifestation, is characterized, besides its qualitative and quantitative aspects, by spatio-temporal moments.
In the history of philosophy and science, for a long time the leading conception of space and time was the metaphysical one, in which space was regarded as a kind of receptacle for material bodies, and time as a certain duration existing independently of matter and space. The metaphysical conception of space and time is overcome in the dialectical-materialist philosophy and science of the 19th–20th centuries.
The dialectical-materialist understanding of space and time asserts their attributive, universal character. Material objects do not exist without spatio-temporal characteristics.
The basic moments of the attribute of space are place and position. Place is a certain volume of an object (the totality of its extensions), encompassed by a spatial boundary (the place of an apartment is its "cubic capacity" – not its area!). Position is the coordination of the place of one object relative to the place of another (other) object (the position of an apartment is the city in which it is located, the building, its location relative to other apartments).
Every object and every element of an object has its own definite place and position. Owing to this, a definite system of spatial relations of coexistence and jointness arises in phenomena, that is, a spatial structure. The relation of coexistence is a spatial relation in which different elements (or objects) occupy different places, while jointness is understood as a relation in which they occupy, wholly or partially, one and the same place.
The basic moments of time are duration and the instant. Duration is the interval of existence of some phenomenon; the instant is a certain "atom" of duration, not further divisible. Duration is the length of existence of an object or its elements, the preservation of their existence.
The duration of each material object (or element) has a definite coordination with respect to the durations of other objects (elements). This coordination consists in relations of simultaneity or succession. By virtue of the existence, between objects (elements), of relations of simultaneity and succession, a chronological structure is present in material objects.
In a material object, space and time exist in unity. Unified space-time is internally connected with motion.
Comments