And
the same argument applies also to future events; i.e. one cannot infer
from an event which occurred in the past that a future event will
occur. The reason of this is that the middle must be homogeneous, past
when the extremes are past, future when they are future, coming to
be when they are coming-to-be, actually existent when they are
actually existent; and there cannot be a middle term homogeneous
with extremes respectively past and future. And it is a further
difficulty in this theory that the time interval can be neither
indefinite nor definite, since during it the inference will be
false. We have also to inquire what it is that holds events together
so that the coming-to-be now occurring in actual things follows upon a
past event. It is evident, we may suggest, that a past event and a
present process cannot be 'contiguous', for not even two past events
can be 'contiguous'. For past events are limits and atomic; so just as
points are not 'contiguous' neither are past events, since both are
indivisible. For the same reason a past event and a present process
cannot be 'contiguous', for the process is divisible, the event
indivisible.
Pages:
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139