8. How To Use A Clock

Clocks those metaphysical instruments that go beyond themselves help coordinate the activities of our daily lives. This chapter considers the instructions of the theory of relativity about correlating clock readings so as to make the laws of physics remain formally independent of where, when and under what conditions they are applied. An integrated study of time, built on an interdisciplinary foundation, faces certain difficulties because of the necessary compartmentalization of knowledge. By exploring the nature of time in the space-time of relativity theory, the chapter extends Kincanon’s warning to the uncritical use of the vocabulary of physical theories in making generalizations about “time that surveys all the world” and not only the physical universe. The chapter sketches the nature of time as it appears in the space-time of special relativity theory.Keywords: clocks; interdisciplinary foundation; metaphysical instruments; special relativity theory