Simultaneity - Philosophical Concept | Alexandria
Simultaneity, an assertion that two or more events occur at precisely the same moment in time, is a concept both intuitively grasped and frustratingly elusive, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about the nature of time itself. Often intertwined with notions of synchronicity or coincidence, it's a term ripe with implication, urging us to question whether our perception of a shared reality is as steadfast as we believe.
While the explicit exploration of Simultaneity as a scientific or philosophical concept gained momentum much later, seeds of its contemplation can be found in ancient philosophical debates concerning causality and the nature of existence. Arguments surrounding free will, determinism, compatibilism, hard determinism, and soft determinism often touched upon the interconnectedness of events. Thinkers like Aristotle grappled with questions of time's flow and the possibility of events occurring "together" in his Physics around 350 BCE. These early inquiries laid the groundwork for future engagements with this great conversation, particularly within the context of ethics and epistemology. These debates were closely related to questions about objective morality, subjective morality, and moral relativism.
The interpretation of Simultaneity underwent a dramatic transformation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily due to advancements in physics. Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, published in 1905, irrevocably altered our understanding, demonstrating that Simultaneity is not absolute but rather relative to the observer's frame of reference. What appears simultaneous to one observer may not be so to another in relative motion. This revelation sent ripples through philosophy, existentialism and metaphysics, challenging deterministic views on existential crisis, free will, and hard determinism. As a corollary, this affected ethics as it made moral agency less obviously a straightforward concept, thus making moral luck and responsibility more of a dilemma. In the world of thought experiment, this can be exemplified by the trolley problem, with its many variations, some of which have to do with simultaneity.
Today, the legacy of Simultaneity extends far beyond theoretical physics. It appears in discussions concerning cognitive bias, bias in decision making, fairness bias, fairness heuristic, and cognitive science of morality. It plays a role in ethics in AI, ethical obligations in AI, and fairness in justice. Even so, Einstein's revolution still resonates and prompts ever deeper analyses of time and causality. Is there a fundamental, underlying reality where Simultaneity holds firm, or is it merely a construct of our perception? The question persists, beckoning us to interrogate the very fabric of space-time.