Eternity

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Eternity, also forever [a] , in common parlance, is an infinite amount of time that never ends or the quality, condition or fact of being everlasting or eternal. [1] Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas sempiternity corresponds to infinite duration.

Contents

Philosophy

Classical period (8th-7th century BC [b] - 5th-9th century AD) [c] Plato (c. 428–423 BC - 348/347 BC) described time as the moving image of eternity in Timaeus (37 [8] D [9] ). Aristotle (384–322 BC) suggested the celestial realm was eternal (in Book I of On the Heavens) [10] and an eternal world (in Physics ) [11] in regard to both past and future eternal duration. The thought of Classical period Augustine, as exists in Book XI of the Confessions, and Boethius (c. 480–524 AD), in Book V of the Consolation of Philosophy were adopted as the reality of the subject for later thinkers in the western tradition of philosophy and in theology. [12] Classical philosophy defines eternity as what exists outside time, as in describing timeless supernatural beings and forces, distinguished from sempiternity which corresponds to infinite time, as described in requiem prayers for the dead.[ which? ] Boethius defined eternity as "simultaneously full and perfect possession of interminable life". [13] [d]

Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 – 1274) believed in an eternal God, without either a beginning or end; the concept of eternity is of divine simplicity, thus incapable of being defined or fully understood by humankind. [14] Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and many others in the Age of Enlightenment drew on the classical distinction to put forward metaphysical hypotheses such as "eternity is a permanent now". [15]

Contemporary philosophy and physics

Today cosmologists, philosophers, and others look towards analyses of the concept from across cultures and history. They debate, among other things, whether an absolute concept of eternity has real application for fundamental laws of physics; compare the issue of entropy as an arrow of time.

Religion

Eternity as infinite duration is an important concept in many lives and religions. God or gods are often said to endure eternally, or exist for all time, forever, without beginning or end. Religious views of an afterlife may speak of it in terms of eternity or eternal life. [e] Christian theologians may regard immutability, like the eternal Platonic forms, as essential to eternity. [16] [f]

Symbolism

Eternity is often symbolized by the endless snake, swallowing its own tail, the ouroboros. The circle, band, or ring is also commonly used as a symbol for eternity, as is the mathematical symbol of infinity, . Symbolically these are reminders that eternity has no beginning or end.

See also

Notes

    1. ↑ in the context of future only - also everlasting
    2. ↑ In the Iliad attributed to Homer (c. 8th century BC) the gods are ἀθάνατος [2] (ἀθανασία [3] ) καὶ ἀγήρως [2] (appearance physically never any older through time)
    3. ↑ Termination of the classical era considered: the last Western Roman Emperor (476), [4] [5] the last Platonic Academy in Athens ends (529) [6] the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, Near East and Europe; 637 - 870 [7]
    4. ↑ Boethius (523), book 5, prose §. 6, quote: "Aeternitas igitur est interminabilis vitae tota simul et perfecta possessio."
    5. ↑ For examples: Bassali (2008), p. 138, quote: "In the next life, there will be two places only - heaven and hell. … In heaven, you will spend an eternity of bliss, light, and glory with God. In hell, you will spend an eternity of woe, darkness and torment apart from God. Which of these two places would you prefer to spend your eternity?"
    6. ↑ Deng (2018), quote: "Augustine connects God's timeless eternity to God's being the cause of all times and God's immutability."
    7. ↑ She holds up an hourglass, her elbow above a human skull and in her lower hand two flowers in maturity, one of which is a dandelion blowball or clock (seed head), reminders of transience. An Ouroboros, snake swallowing its own tail, floats above her head as a halo - symbols of eternity.

    References

    1. ↑ "eternity" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press.(Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
    2. 1 2 Garcia Jr, Lorenzo. "1. Immortal and ageless forever? The spatial and temporal dimensions of immortality". Homeric Durability: Telling Time in the Iliad. Hellenic Studies Series 58. Harvard University Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies. [ed. ageless is an error in-as-much-as their current static physically appearing age could be estimated by similarity to known ages of individuals in the mortal realm]
    3. ↑ "ἀθανασία". LSJ .
    4. ↑ Clare, I. S. (1906). Library of universal history: containing a record of the human race from the earliest historical period to the present time; embracing a general survey of the progress of mankind in national and social life, civil government, religion, literature, science and art. New York: Union Book. p. 1519 (cf., Ancient history, as we have already seen, ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire; [...])
    5. ↑ United Center for Research and Training in History. (1973). Bulgarian historical review. Sofia: Pub. House of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences]. p. 43. (cf. ... in the history of Europe, which marks both the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages, is the fall of the Western Roman Empire.)
    6. ↑ Hadas, Moses (1950). A History of Greek Literature. Columbia University Press. p. 273 of 331. ISBN   0-231-01767-7.{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
    7. ↑ Henri Pirenne (1937). Mohammed and Charlemagne Archived 8 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine English translation by Bernard Miall, 1939. From Internet Archive. The thesis was originally discussed in an article published in Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire 1 (1922), pp. 77–86.
    8. ↑ Smith, Andrew (August 13, 1996). "8 Eternity and Time". In Gerson, Lloyd (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus. Cambridge University. p. 197. ISBN   0521476763.
    9. ↑ Noburu NOTOMI (August 12, 2018). "Plato on Time and Eternity: Timaeus 37C-38C" (PDF). jsns.jp. 新プラトン主義協会 (Japanese Society for Neoplatonic Studies).
    10. ↑ Maria Varlamova (2018). "Philoponus on the Nature of the Heavens and the Movement of Elements in Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World". Scrinium: Revue de patrologie, d’hagiographie critique et d’histoire ecclésiastique.
    11. ↑ "Eternity of the World". Faculty of Theology and Religion. University of Oxford. Archived (Timestamp date invalid) at the Wayback Machine
    12. ↑ Deng, Natalja. Edward N. Zalta; Uri Nodelman (eds.). "Eternity The loci classici". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2025 Edition). (Following the work of Boethius and Augustine) [ed.:of Thagaste] (divine timelessness became the dominant view.)...what came to be the dominant account of eternity in western philosophy and theology, are to be found in
    13. ↑ Boedder (1902), book 2, ch. 2, "The Eternity of God".
    14. ↑ Helm (2010), §. 6, "Medieval thinkers".
    15. ↑ Hobbes (1662), p. 50.
    16. ↑ Deng (2018), §. 3.1, "The Loci Classici".

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