| Title: | Instant |
| Original Title: | Instant |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 8 (1765), p. 794 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Translator: | Betsy Lee Feldman [Columbia University] |
| Subject terms: |
Metaphysics
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| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.573 |
| Citation (MLA): | "Instant." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Betsy Lee Feldman. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2011. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.573>. Trans. of "Instant," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 8. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | "Instant." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Betsy Lee Feldman. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.573 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Instant," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 8:794 (Paris, 1765). |
Instant, part of duration in which one does not perceive any development, or that which takes up only the time of one idea in our minds. This time is the shortest moment for us. See Moment, Duration , etc .
It is an axiom in Mechanics, that no natural effect can be produced in an instant. From this, one sees why it is that a load seems lighter to someone in relation to how fast he carries it, and why ice is less likely to crack when one slides on it quickly than if one is going more slowly. See Time.
Philosophers distinguish three kinds of instants , the instant of time, the instant of nature, and the instant of reason.
The instant of time is a part of time that immediately precedes another: thus, the last instant of a day really and immediately precedes the first instant of the next day.
The instant of nature, otherwise called the priority of nature, is found in things where one action is subordinate to another, such as primary and secondary causes; cause and effect, for the nature of things requires that there be a primary cause if there is a secondary cause; that there be a cause if there is an effect.
The instant of reason is an instant that is not real, but that reason, understanding, the mind conceives before another instant, on the foundation of that aspect that causes us to have its conception. For example, because God did several things freely, and that He was able not to do, there is a reasonable foundation for conceiving God as He is in Himself before conceiving of the decrees that he made freely; but because there was in fact never a time or a real instant in which God made no decree, this instant is called the instant of reason, and not the instant of time.
From instant comes instantaneous , that which only lasts for an instant . It is in this sense that we say that the action of electric matter is instantaneous , and that the propagation of light is not. However, the meaning of this term is not always as strict; and we sometimes apply it to a phenomenon of which the duration, albeit short, nevertheless has some commensurable duration; in that case it is a synonym of sudden and fleeting .