How Fast Is Time?

How fast is time? A physicist might answer one second per second, a theologian might answer at the speed that God allows it to, and a philosopher might ask if it moves at all. This is the question that Oliver subtly answers on page 346 of A Tale for the Time Being. He says that words come from the dead and we inherit them from our ancestors, citing that “The ancient Greeks believed that when you read aloud, it was actually the dead borrowing your tongue, in order to speak again” (Ozeki 346). This argument blatantly uses the Greek idea, but also borrows the basis for Burke’s political philosophy.

            The Greek argument is very explicit in that words and by extension ideas come from the past and we merely lend ourselves to the originators of those ideas as a medium through which the ideas may flow again.  But if this is true, then every ‘new’ idea must come from the words of older dead thinkers, which leads all the way back to the first thought which all other thoughts and words mimic.  Therefore, in an idealistic sense, time seems to not change at all, since every ‘new’ idea is simply a regurgitation of the oldest of ideas.

            Similarly, Burke uses the same assumption for his political theory.  Burke states “If civil society be the offspring of convention …” (Burke Reflections on the Revolution in France), meaning that civil society is inherited via tradition from our ancestors.  Burke later goes on to argue, then that government must uphold its convention and change as slowly as possible in order to function well.  Oliver allows this same of argument in A Tale for the Time Being, except replace government and civil society with time.