BOOK REVIEW Time and Space, Concepts and Phenomena Dassonville, Patrice F. (2017) The Invention of Time and Space: Origins, Definitions, Nature, Properties. Springer, Cham. ISBN: 978-3-319-46040-6, 176 pages, price: € 67.82 (eBook) Ricardo Lopes Coelho 1 Published online: 23 May 2017 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 1 Introduction The main thesis of Dassonville’ s book is expressed in the title: time and space are inventions. The term Binvention^ appears in opposition to Bdiscovery^ , which relates to phenomena. Time and space were not discovered. They do not exist by themselves but are rather merely intellectual constructions. The topics announced in the subtitle of the book—origins, defini- tions, nature and properties of time and space—are addressed in the four central chapters (5–8). The first four chapters point out difficulties with space and time and provide specific terminol- ogy. The last four chapters consist of a historical overview of time and space, consequences from their non-existence, a brief conclusion and a glossary. Chapter 1 presents the problem. In our everyday lives, in science and philosophy, where time and space are very common, it is assumed with a few exceptions that time exists. The same holds for space. There is no doubt about its existence. We are in space as well as everything else. Nevertheless, there are no definitions of time and space. This topic is further explored in chapter 2. Dassonville mentions Dante, who pointed out that philosophy considered space and time as primordial categories of understanding but this does not explain what time and space are. Dante’ s warning is illustrated by Aristotle and Kant. Bergson, who believed in the flux of time, and Heidegger, who took time as a being, are also criticized. The author’ s criticism also involves the idea of the arrow of time in physics. Chapter 3 goes deeper into the problems and points out some reasons for them. The basic problem lies in the confusion between phenomena and concepts. This is the diagnosis of the author, which can be illustrated through the following example. In a cross-section of a tree trunk, we observe concentric clear and dark rings. The latter are developed in summer. Sci & Educ (2017) 26:439–443 DOI 10.1007/s11191-017-9898-y * Ricardo Lopes Coelho rlc@fc.ul.pt 1 Departament of History and Philosophy of the Sciences, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa and Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, Lisbon, Portugal