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Eternity is one of the most difficultand conflicting philosophical categories. The complexity and contradiction lies in the fact that eternity is something the opposite of time. Man, like the whole world around him, exists in time. Consequently, an attempt to understand eternity is tantamount to an attempt to go beyond the limits of one's own being.

Absolute eternity

Eternity in its highest manifestation is representedas a state of something or someone that is not subject to any changes. We should not identify such a state with static and oppose development. It does not need development, because development is a gradual movement toward perfection, towards the fullness of being. It is supposed, at least theoretically, that someday perfection will be achieved, and the movement is completed. The state of absolute eternity initially embodies the perfection and completeness of being, accordingly, it has neither beginning nor end in time. The concept of time to such a state is practically inapplicable. This is how the eternity of God appears in monotheistic religions: Christianity, Islam, Judaism.

Eternity as a cycle

Another idea of ​​eternity is associated withInfinitely repeating cycles. The simplest variant is the perception of time in pagan cults based on the worship of natural forces: in spring, spring always comes, in the spring - summer, autumn, again winter, the cycle repeats constantly. This cycle was observed by all living people, their parents, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, therefore something else in principle is impossible to imagine. Such an idea of ​​eternity is developed in a number of philosophical systems, in particular, in Stoicism.

Eternity as a property of the universe

The question of eternity in general is closely related toThe question of the eternity of the Universe. In medieval philosophy, the universe appeared to have a beginning in time (the Creation of the World) and an end to the future. In the science of modern times, the idea of ​​the static nature of the universe appears. I.Newton put forward the idea of ​​the infinity of the universe in space, and I. Kant - about the originality and infinity of it in time. The theory of the static universe, within which it could be considered eternal, dominated science until the first half of the 20th century, when the model of the expanding universe and the Big Bang came to replace it. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe has a beginning in time, physicists could even calculate it the age is about 14 billion years. From this point of view, it is impossible to consider the universe as eternal. Regarding the future of the Universe among scientists, there is no common opinion. Some believe that the expansion will continue until all the bodies decay into elementary particles, and this can be considered the end of the universe. According to another hypothesis, the expansion will be replaced by compression, the universe will cease to exist in its present form. In the framework of these hypotheses, the universe is not eternal. But there is a hypothesis of a pulsating universe: expansion is replaced by compression, and compression by expansion, and so it happens many times. This corresponds to the idea of ​​eternity as an infinite repetition of cycles. To date, it is impossible to answer uniquely which of these hypotheses is closer to the truth. Consequently, the question of the eternity of the universe remains open.