The Subjective Time

by Andrew Gallardo

Time, for me, is one powerful entity that encompasses the actions of many creatures. Indeed, it is a part of the way of life and it dictates the way of life of all creatures in this world. It is an inevitable force that makes the world spin, and, conscious or not, makes the life go on.

Yet, there is something about time that always leaves me wondering. Why is it not fixed? Why is it that there is no such law that dictates a set time for everyone? Can we not make an agreement that a midnight should really be a midnight for everyone, and not 11:59 in the evening for someone, and 12:01 in the morning for another?

I know that there is a new law now in this country that sets such fixed time, though administratively, I guess that it is not being followed. I mean, even until now, my wrist watch and our clock watch does not reflect the exact same time. But in a broader scope, someone in another country surely has a different time with me. To be specific, there is even an adjustment rule on how to convert your time with that to another land.

But no, I would not talk about physics, astrophysics, astronomy or whatever field of science that would explain why such difference of time occurs. Nor would I talk about how space influences time and all those philosophical explanations. I would just like to relate what I have learned in my philosophy class- about the subjectivity of the concept of truth.

For me, the concept of time concretely shows how the truth is relative to the rational that interprets it. It is hard to find a standard time that is being followed by anyone. Even the “Big Ben” in London is not being followed by all the Brits. Therefore, we can imply from the situation that the meaning that we derive from the numeric time is the one that truly matters.

We all know that in these recent days, some people, especially those who work as call centre agents, have a rather different “take” on time than what we usually have. While most of us relate night time into sleeping, some people like the call centre agents and the guards have a contrary view to this. And while for Spanish and Italians, there would always be a siesta after lunch; some countries only treat this time as a normal mid-afternoon.

Again, maybe indeed, people do not bother in setting a fixed time for everyone for it is not really the numeric time that matters, but rather, it is what we do on those times that truly affect us. Each of us has our own “take” on a time. Personally now, in my case, night time until around 2:00 is the “working time” for me and 2:00 to 8:00 is the proper sleeping time. While a friend of mine sleeps from 10:00 in the evening until 6:00 in the morning. This subjectivity of the concept of time shows how a fact can mean so much different for anyone. And we should not force ourselves into brushing off this difference; rather, we should respect it, for the truth is indeed subjective- it relates to the very person itself of the meaning-giver.


And perhaps, that subjectivity of time is the one that gives birth to the adjectives that relates to the essence of time, such as the word “timeless”. For indeed, there is something more than the computed detail between things- something that mere words could never and should be enough to describe. And contrary to what I have stated earlier, it is not really the numeric time which should dictate the action. Rather, what we do on those times defines what the time is for us. And, certainly, it is really our actions that makes a time “timeless”.