For Manfred Eigen, time is a physical fact that is tied to physical processes and unfolds in different ways in different types of processes. It appears on three levels of physical-chemical processes: as a symmetrical development parameter at the level of equilibrium states that are determined by actually timeless physical laws, as a weak, directed temporality at the level of relaxation processes after disturbances of stable equilibrium or flow equilibrium states, and as a strong, directed temporality at the level of unstable, irreversibly evolving systems with reference to the past. There are a large number of relaxation and evolution processes, each of which is characterized by specific proper times with specific time constants as parameters.

For the physicist, time is primarily a measurement related to the observer’s perspective for characterizing processes. To the observer involved, the universe appears as a relaxation process accompanied by an increase in entropy and associated with weak temporality, which tends to a state of thermodynamic equilibrium with maximum entropy and vanishing temporality. Irreversible processes that lead to life and consciousness, among other things, through variation (disturbance of non-equilibrium states) and selection are spatially limited processes that can appear under special conditions with a local reduction in entropy and strong temporality. The latter are limited in their development possibilities, but not determined. They „forget“ their past, but are open to the future.

LIterature:

Eigen Manfred, Evolution und Zeitlichkeit, in Die Zeit – Dauer und Augenblick, S. 35 ff., Hg. Gumin Heinz, Meier Heinrich (1983, zitiert nach 4. TB Auflg. 1998)

Further Reading:

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