Eternity, also referred to as sempiternity or forever, is time with no end i.e. infinite.

In the context of human life, eternity and death are co-existing realities.

Etymology

Cicero used the word aeternitatis, (work: De Inventione 1, 27, 39.) written at some time between the years 88 - 81 BC which is an early or the earliest extant written form from which the English word is derived; first shown in history in a circa 1374 translation by Chaucer. The first usage in French is 1175: eternitez: B. de Ste-Maure, 'Ducs Normandie.

Philosophy

Eastern tradition

In traditional Chinese 'eternity' exists in the Analects.

Western tradition

During the Classical period (8th-7th century BC Plato (c. 428–423 BC - 348/347 BC) described time as a moving image of eternity (in Timaeus 37 D) using the word: αἰών. Plato stated the kosmos was ἁγἡρων (ageless) in Timaeus 33a, in 37e6–38a6 the eternal forms are contrasted with the temporality of the world. Aristotle (384–322 BC) stated οὐρανοῦ was eternal (in Book I of Περὶ οὐρανοῦ) and an eternal world (in Physics).

The ancient Greek word for everlastingness was ἀίδιος (aidios) as exists via Plotinus, who also used the word aoin (eternity), in Ennead III.7.

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and many others in the Age of Enlightenment drew on the classical distinction to put forward metaphysical hypotheses such as "eternity is a permanent now".

Physics

The possibility of eternal universes with reference to General Relativity was a subject of physics since the 21st century.

Poetry

The kanji for eternity is used in the Japanese Manyōshū.

Religion

Eternity as infinite duration is an important concept in many lives and religions. God or gods are often said to endure eternally, or exist for all time, forever, without beginning or end. Religious views of an afterlife may speak of it in terms of eternity or eternal life.

Asia

In the Rigveda, Aditi, as a goddess, is eternal.

Levant

Ancient Egyptian eternity terms were neheh, for cyclical time, and djet, for linear. Rameses III (c.1187-1156 B.C.E.) funerary temple

In Genesis 21:33 of the Old Testament El-Olam is God-Eternal.

In the Islamic context, while azal indicates eternity at the beginning of known time and abad at the end; sarmad indicates all (both) aspects, this latter as an adjectival form is in surah 28 parts 71 and 72 of the Qur'an. In Islamic culture the eternity of the universe was a subject in the writings of Abu Ali ibn Sīna (died 1037), Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Abu Walid Muhammad Ibn Rushd. Iliadical ἀθάνατος (athanatos) is the immortal.

The timelessness in divinity of classical period Augustine, as exists in Book XI of the Confessions, and Boethius (c. 480–524 AD), in Book V of the Consolation of Philosophy were adopted as the reality of the subject for later thinkers in the western tradition of philosophy. Boethius stated eternity was: interminabilis vitae tota simul et perfecta possessio, which is translated as "simultaneously full and perfect possession of interminable life". and nunc permanens, which in English is a: permanent now. The circle, band, or ring is also commonly used as a symbol for eternity, as is the mathematical symbol of infinity, <math>\infty</math>. Symbolically, these are reminders that eternity has no beginning or end.

See also

Notes

References

Works cited

Further reading

  • Entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on the relationship between God and Time.