The questions of whether the universe had a beginning in time and whether it is limited in space were later extensively examined by the philosopher Immanuel Kant in his monumental(and very obscure) work Critique of Pure Reason, published in1781. He called these questions antinomies (that is, contradictions) of pure reason because he felt that there were equally compelling arguments for believing the thesis, that the universe had a beginning, and the antithesis , that it had existed forever. His argument for the thesis was that if the universe did not have a beginning, there would be an infinite period of time before any event, which he considered absurd. The argument for the antithesis was that if the universe had a beginning, there would be an infinite period of time before it, so why should the universe begin at any one particular time?
In fact, his cases for both the thesis and the antithesis are really the same argument. They are both based on his unspoken assumption that time continues back forever, whether or not the universe had existed forever. As we shall see, the concept of time has no meaning before the beginning of the universe. This was first pointed out by St. Augustine. When asked: “What did God do before he created the universe?”
Augustine didn’t reply: “He was preparing Hell for people who asked such questions.” Instead, he said that time was a property of the universe that God created, and that time did not exist before the beginning of the universe.
Obscure 模糊的
Antithesis 對立面
1781年，哲學家伊曼努爾·康德發表了里程碑般的（也是非常模糊的）著作——《純粹理性批判》，在這本中，他深入地考察了關於宇宙在時間上是否有開端、空間上是否有極限的問題。他稱這些問題為純粹理性的二律背反（也就是矛盾）。因為他感到存在同樣令人信服的論據，來證明宇宙有開端的正命題，以及宇宙已經存在無限久的反命題。他對正命題的論證是：如果宇宙沒有一個開端，則任何事件之前必有無限的時間。他認為這是荒謬的。他對反命題的論證是：如果宇宙有一開端，在它之前必有無限的時間，為何宇宙必須在某一特定的時刻開始呢？
事實上，他對正命題和反命題用了同樣的論證。它們都是基於他的隱含的假設，即不管宇宙是否存在了無限久，時間均可無限地倒溯回去。我們將會看到，在宇宙開端之前時間概念是沒有意義的。這一點是聖·奧古斯丁首先指出的。當他被問及：上帝在創造宇宙之前做什麼？
奧古斯丁沒有這樣地回答：他正為問這類問題的人準備地獄。而是說：時間是上帝所創造的宇宙的一個性質，在宇宙開端之前不存在。
閱讀更多 讀書看劇記單詞 的文章
