The Culture of Time

时间文化             

Not every physics concept becomes thecenter of cultural and scientific engagement. For example, angular momentum isvery important in physics, but has never been a major concern for artists,architects or philosophers. Why did time occupy such an important cultural roleeven before Einstein's 1905 work – where angular momentum did not? In otherwords: why, historically, is time special?

不是每一个物理概念都成为文化和科学参与的中心。例如，角动量在物理学中是非常重要的，但对于艺术家、建筑师或哲学家来说，从来就不是一个主要的问题。为什么在爱因斯坦1905次作品《没有角动量》之前，时间占据了如此重要的文化角色？换言之，历史上为什么时间是特殊的？