Le Temps est-il une qualité seconde ou première du Réel ? — Analyse historique des rapports entre science et philosophie du Temps d’Aristote à Bergson

Abstract

By the mean of an historical overview of the relationships between Science and Philosophy regarding the definition of Time, our paper will aim at identifying the origin and condition of the emergence of the Linear and Progressive conception of Time. We would like to convey the following ideas: 1. Time is by definition something whose definition is evolving through time; 2. This evolution goes with a constant interplay between Science and Philosophy; 3. The problem of the definition of Time cannot be reduced to an alternative between reversibility or irreversibility; 4. During the evolution of the concept of Time, three main metaphoric epistemological schemes framed its understanding: Circle, Line, Network—inside these frameworks the debate between a "realist" and "idealist" was perpetually revisited; 5. It is possible to address the problem of Time by defining it as the cosmological expression of non-linear interactions between actual physical events and virtual natural laws.