A Matter of Time
College Course 2
Winter 1999
Dwight Lahr and Beatriz Pastor
Friday Discussion: Week 1
Question 1: To what extent do we/should we accept an arbitrary time keeping system?
Related Issues
(a) How arbitrary are our time measurement systems?
(b) Does time measurement historically evolve in the direction of arbitrariness?
(c) Does it make any difference in terms of people's experience of time and/or the meaning of time for individuals or society how arbitrary a time measurement system is?
Question 2: Does the discovered utility of a time keeping system justify our subjection to artificial time units such as the week?
Related Issues
(a) Frame of reference for the question of utility: against what standard are we measuring utility?
(b) Frame of reference for the question of justification: practical, artistic, ethical, individual, social, standard of living, quality of life, … etc.?
Question 3: What is the difference between correlation and cause-and-effect? Take the 7-day week as an example.
Related Issues
(a) The Babylonians invented the 7-day week and dedicated each day (don't forget that the word for day in the Sumerian and Akkadian languages was wind) to a different wind.
(b) The Hebrews adopted the Babylonian 7-day week to mark the period between Sabbath days.
(c) The choice of the number 7 could be related to the widespread attention of ancient astronomers to the five heavenly bodies which changed their places in relation to the so-called fixed stars: Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars which together with the sun and the moon added up to 7.
(d) Recent chrono-biological studies show that most organisms respond to the circaseptan: a biological variation of rhythms with a frequency of one cycle in about seven days.
(e) Is the 7-day week "all culture and no nature," or is it grounded in the biology of living organisms?
Question 4: How do we read the 7 days of creation in Genesis?
Related Issues
(a) Do they make sense geologically? Can they correspond to any geological time scale?
(b) Can we read them from an evolutionary perspective?
(c) Are they a symbolic representation of time and if so: What is their meaning? What kind of agenda do they relate to?
Question 5: Norbert Elias defines knowledge as "the development of means of orientation." How does a means of orientation like time come about?
Related Issues
(a) By what process does a means of orientation such as time devised and shared by a few become a solidly accepted social phenomenon?
(b) Can you think of a comparable process in our own time?