History and geology take us away from the now, astronomy takes us away from the here. The man whose mind has been filled with these studies gets a feeling that there is something accidental, and almost trivial, about the fact that his ego occupies a very particular portion of the space-time stream. His intellect becomes gradually more and more detached from these physical needs. It ( = his intellect) acquires in this way a generality and scope and power which is impossible to one whose thoughts are bounded by his animal wants.
Source： Bertrand Russell: A Philosophy of Our Time (1953)
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* a brief comment:
Sciences that must take time into account, such as history and geology, liberate us from the constraint of "the now," while sciences that must consider space, such as astronomy, liberate us from the constraint of "the here." Or rather, since time and space cannot be separated according to the theory of relativity, it may be more appropriate to say that science (or scientific inquiry) liberates us, human beings, from the constraints of time-space.
However, considering that our lifespan is merely a fleeting moment, a hundred years at most, from the perspective of cosmic time, can we truly say that we are liberated from the constraints of time-space?
Moreover, one could say that the existence of life on Earth is itself a recent phenomenon.
Then, is a world without life truly different from a world with life? Even if our galaxy, where we now exist, were to explode and return to a lifeless state, wouldn't there be almost no difference from the perspective of the universe as a whole?
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