We think space and time are the structure of the universe. Yet Einstein argued “space and time are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live”. And the philosophers Kant and Heidegger, saw space and time as the framework of thought, not of the world. Are space and time just a human fantasy?

At the heart of this issue of IAI News is this complex question of time. Going head to head are philosopher Joseph Diekemper and theoretical physicist Julian Barbour. At issue: the nature of the present. Diekemper argues that the present is nothing but a border between the past and the future. However, Barbour responds to say that arguing over past and future is to miss what really matters.

Despite this uncertainty about its true nature, time is nonetheless vital for human conceptions of identity. Philosopher and classicist Angie Hobbs argues that time matters twice over: both as memory and as the narrative structures we need to make sense of ourselves and the world.