Tiden og d?den

摘要

According to temporal idealism, time and change presuppose the existence of conscious life. The author reflects on what follows from temporal idealism for a state without life, i.e. of death, starting with a frequently cited letter from Albert Einstein to the bereaved family of a deceased friend. Einstein seems to find comfort in the idea of a four-dimensional block universe where a person’s existing in a distant or remote part of time is not fundamentally different from her existing in a distant region of space. The block universe was also an important motivating factor behind modern forms of temporal idealism. Moreover, as shown by Saint Augustine, without the temporal A-series, time, or any fourth dimension of the block universe, lacks the quality of extension. Therefore, contrary to Einstein, death may mean the disappearance of temporal distance, with the experience of an entire life reduced to a point.