Eternity

[1] Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas sempiternity corresponds to infinite duration.

Classical philosophy defines eternity as what exists outside time, as in describing timeless supernatural beings and forces, distinguished from sempiternity which corresponds to infinite time, as described in requiem prayers for the dead.[which?]

Boethius defined eternity as "simultaneously full and perfect possession of interminable life".

[3] Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and many others in the Age of Enlightenment drew on the classical distinction to put forward metaphysical hypotheses such as "eternity is a permanent now".

They debate, among other things, whether an absolute concept of eternity has real application for fundamental laws of physics; compare the issue of entropy as an arrow of time.