Gerald J Whitrow - Collected Quotes

"In classical physics, most of the fundamental laws of nature were concerned either with the stability of certain configurations of bodies, e.g. the solar system, or else with the conservation of certain properties of matter, e.g. mass, energy, angular momentum or spin. The outstanding exception was the famous Second Law of Thermodynamics, discovered by Clausius in 1850. This law, as usually stated, refers to an abstract concept called entropy, which for any enclosed or thermally isolated system tends to increase continually with lapse of time. In practice, the most familiar example of this law occurs when two bodies are in contact: in general, heat tends to flow from the hotter body to the cooler. Thus, while the First Law of Thermodynamics, viz. the conservation of energy, is concerned only with time as mere duration, the Second Law involves the idea of trend." (Gerald J Whitrow, "The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology", 1949)

"Space-time is curved in the neighborhood of material masses, but it is not clear whether the presence of matter causes the curvature of space-time or whether this curvature is itself responsible for the existence of matter." (Gerald J Whitrow, "The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology", 1949)

"We have assumed that the laws of nature must be capable of expression in a form which is invariant for all possible transformations of the space-time co-ordinates." (Gerald J Whitrow, "The Structure of the Universe: An Introduction to Cosmology", 1949)

"The basic objection to attempts to deduce the unidirectional nature of time from concepts such as entropy is that they are attempts to reduce a more fundamental concept to a less fundamental one." (Gerald J Whitrow, "The Natural Philosophy of Time", 1961)

"[Time is not] a mysterious illusion of the intellect. [...] It is an essential feature of the universe." (Gerald J Whitrow, "The Natural Philosophy of Time", 1961)

"Our conscious appreciation of the fact that one event follows another is of a different kind from our awareness of either event separately. If two events are to be represented as occurring in succession, then - paradoxically - they must also be thought of simultaneously." (Gerald J Whitrow, "The Natural Philosophy of Time", 1961)

"Language itself inevitably introduced an element of permanence into the world. For, although speech itself is transitory, the conventionalized sound symbols of language transcended time." (Gerald J Whitrow, "Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day", 1988)

"Man must have been conscious of memories and purposes long before he made any explicit distinction between past, present, and future." (Gerald J Whitrow, "Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day", 1988)

"The development of rational thought actually seems to have impeded man's appreciation for the significance of time. [...] Belief that the ultimate reality is timeless is deeply rooted in human thinking, and the origin of rational investigation of the world was the search for permanent factors that lie behind the ever-changing pattern of events." (Gerald J Whitrow, "Time in History: Views of Time from Prehistory to the Present Day", 1988)