Time

Critical to both both physics and philosophy is that time must be quasi-cyclic, NOT “cyclic”. Supercyclic time is an easy consequence of Newtonian physics in a closed cosmos (Poincaré recurrence theorem). This enables an easy scientific understanding of the belief in repeated lives after death. But, as explained in the various abstracts below, this is NOT what is needed for e.g, Hinduism for which the notion of moksha (or deliverance from rebirth) is central.


The church confounded two different types of “cyclic” time (in early Christianity), resulting in its 6th c. curse on “cyclic” time, which has caused enormous confusion about time in Western thought right up to the present-day paradoxes of time travel. A tilt in the arrow of time (or the existence of small amounts of advanced interactions) is necessary for quasi-cyclic time and spontaneity. This results in functional differential equations of mixed-type. No hypothesis is needed for such equations: they are just the most general type of equations which apply to physics after electrodynamics and relativity. Unfortunately, most physicists are confused about these issues.


Physics of a tilt in the arrow of time and functional differential equations


Early paper: (on advanced interactions in the erroneous Wheeler-Feynman absorber theory and Hoyle-Narlikar theory)


Raju, C. K. ‘Classical Time-Symmetric Electrodynamics’. Journal of Physics A: Math. Gen. 13 (1980): 3303–17.


Books


Raju, C. K. Time: Towards a Consistent Theory. Kluwer Academic (Springer), 1994.


Raju, C. K. The Eleven Pictures of Time: The Physics, Philosophy and Politics of Time Beliefs. Sage, 2003.


Recent papers


Raju, C. K. ‘The Electrodynamic 2-Body Problem and the Origin of Quantum Mechanics’. Foundations of Physics 34, no. 6 (2004): 937–62.


Raju, C. K. ‘Time Travel and the Reality of Spontaneity’. Foundations of Physics 36, no. 7 (1 July 2006): 1099–1113. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10701-006-9056-x.


Raju, Suvrat, and C. K. Raju. ‘Radiation Damping and Functional Differential Equations’. Mod. Phys. Lett. A 26, no. 35 (2011): 2627–38.






Expository papers


Raju, C. K. Functional differential equations. 1: A New Paradigm in Physics’. Physics Education 29, no. 3 (Sep 2013): Article 1. http://physedu.in/uploads/publication/11/200/29.3.1FDEs-in-physics-part-1.pdf.

-. ‘FDEs . 2: The Classical Hydrogen Atom.’ Phys Ed. 29, no. 3 (Sep 2013). http://www.physedu.in/uploads/publication/11/201/29.3.2FDEs-in-physics-part-2.pdf.

-. ‘FDEs. 3: Radiative Damping”’. Phys. Ed. 30, no. 3 (Jul 2014): 8. http://www.physedu.in/uploads/publication/15/263/7.-Functional-differential-equations.pdf.

-. ‘FDEs. 4: Retarded Gravitation’. Phys. Ed. 31, no. 2 (Jun 2015). http://www.physedu.in/uploads/publication/19/309/1-Functional-differential-equations-4-Retarded-gravitation-(2).pdf.

-. ‘FDEs . 5: Time-Travel and Life’. Phys. Ed. 31, no. 4 (Dec 2015). http://www.physedu.in/uploads/publication/21/344/1.-Functional-differential-equations-5-Time-travel-and-life.pdf.

-. ‘FDEs. 6: Quantum Mechanics’. Phys. Ed. 32, no. 1 (Mar 2016). http://www.physedu.in/uploads/publication/22/369/11-FDEs-in-physics-6-(1).pdf.


Raju, C. K. ‘A Singular Nobel?’ Mainstream 59, no. 7 (30 January 2021). http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article10406.html. (On Nobel prize to Penrose). Also at http://ckraju.net/papers/Penrose-mod.html.



Time in Indian philosophy


Raju, C. K. ‘Time in Indian and Western Traditions and Time in Physics’. In Mathematics, Astronomy and Biology in Indian Tradition, PHISPC Monograph Series on History of Philosophy, Science, and Culture in Indian, edited by D.P. Chattopadhyaya and Ravinder Kumar eds, 56–93. 3. New Delhi: ICPR, 1995.


Raju, C. K. ‘Time in Medieval India’. In Science, Philosophy, and Culture: Multidisciplinary Explorations, edited by D.P. Chattopadhyaya and Ravinder Kumar eds, Part 2:253–78. New Delhi: PHISPC, 1997. Also: In History of Indian Science, Technology, and Culture, AD 1000–1800, edited by A. Rahman. New Delhi: Press, 1998. Also in: Indian Horizons 46, no. 4 (1999): 40–71.



Raju, C.K. ‘Kâla and Dik’. Edited by P.K. Sen and P.K. Sen. Philosophical Concepts Relevant to Science in Early Indian Tradition, PHISPC III, no. 5 (2008): 67–92.


Raju, C. K. ‘Atman, Quasi-Recurrence and Paticca Samuppāda’. In Self, Science and Society, Theoretical and Historical Perspectives, edited by D. P. Chattopadhyaya and A.K. Sengupta, 196–206. New Delhi: PHISPC, 2005. http://ckraju.net/papers/Atman-quasi-recurrence-and-paticca-samuppada.pdf.



Quasi-cyclic time in Hinduism


Abstracts of lectures in Berlin: Eleven Pictures of time: the physics, philosophy and politics of time beliefs (http://ckraju.net/blog/?p=186)


Abstract at 25th Vedanta Congress: http://ckraju.net/papers/atman-ckr-abstract-for-25th-Vedanta-congress.pdf

Presentation at 25th Vedanta Congtess: http://ckraju.net/papers/presentations/ckr-points-25th-vedanta-congress.html


An earlier abstract: “Atman as a scientific notion and its relation to physics and mathematics”: http://ckraju.net/papers/ckr-atman-as-a-scientific-notion-abstract.pdf.



Impact of time beliefs on ethics (elaboration of discussion in 11 pictures of time)


“The Harmony Principle” Philosophy East and West, 63(4) (2013) pp. 586–604. http://www.ckraju.net/papers/Harmony-principle-pew.pdf.