Space

Space is a difficult concept. It is less mysterious, less mystical, than time, but more intricate, more mathematical. We feel inadequate when we hear physicists saying that space is not flat, but everywhere possesses some definite curvature. We have learned to sneer at Newton for believing in absolute space, at Kant for holding that it must be Euclidean. There is no doubt that there exist non-Euclidean spaces, because all that is claimed by such an assertion is that sets of non-Euclidean axioms constitute possible implicit definitions of abstract entities – that is to say that some sets of non-Euclidean axioms are consistent. Diplomats deal with air space, and the German people, according to Hitler, needed living space. Space is necessary to give us room to be different in: space provides a bare minimum for the possibility of change.