Introduction

Abstract

Ancient mythologies enmeshed human life within the cosmic, galactic world of eternality and the ethereal world of deities and spirits. Within mythic narratives, time and space were not nameable categories of understanding. In contrast, philosophical distinctions between the worlds of mythology, noumena and phenomena bring the categories of time and space into focus. They are recognizable dimensions of the human and natural world and primary subjects of intellectual inquiry. In this context, time and space presuppose each other. From a philosophical perspective, being is a construct of time and space. Correspondingly, change invokes the idea of movement through time and through space. This acknowledgement need not preclude an emphasis on time or space for specific research purposes. The arguments of this book can be positioned within longstanding philosophical debates over the relationship between being and change. From the standpoint of the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, being is an eternal state which is constitutive of time and space. Change, therefore, is merely a derivative of being with no independent ontological status. Conversely, one might argue that the process of becoming (or ceasing) prevails over states of being and that incessant change or flux is fundamental to reality. This latter view, originating from the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus, allows us to see time as a confluence of opposing and interacting forces.