Question: I'm looking to find some resources to read about the following:  

When we talk about a general concept (the word pencil in "a pencil is made of wood"), we actually have a mental image of a **particular** object in our mind (a particular pencil with a particular color in the example).

I'm looking to read about this and similar issues. I don't even know what topic to look into. I've looked a bit on Frege's work but I didn't find what I was looking for. I'd appreciate suggestions.

Answer: 
Time, as we know it is a method of tracking events, the "time" we know is something that is defined by man, but something defined by man is not always created by them, "time" will always flow, without time, we would not be able to see, hear, think, thus be.

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> That is, if everything in the universe suddenly stopped, would there really be any time at all? 
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even if "everything stopped" time would not, time exists outside our brains and thoughts, quantum particles and such are constantly moving, no matter where.

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> Let's say we were creatures floating around in a space where literally NOTHING happens that we can clearly say came after something else. 
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There is never a situation where "nothing happens", there are situations where you may think "nothing is happening" but constantly something is happening, particles are always moving, they never stop, even without there being someone to "define" time, time will exist. 

Time is not something that is defined by events. time is what defines the events, for something to happen time must pass.

What you are thinking here is similar to Schrödinger's cat theorem, which basically implies 

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> Does something exist if no one observes it? 
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In the theory, the cat that is put into a poison gas box, and is at the same time alive and dead because it is not observed, but the same cannot be applied to time, time is not something you can "observe" but it still moves

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> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger%27s\_cat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat)
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It depends.

If nothing is changing because in fact there is nothing there then it's right to say that no time is passing because there is nothing there including time. 

If nothing is changing because everything is actually in stasis but could potentially change then time is passing.

If nothing is changing because everything is actually in stasis and cannot even in principle change then time is not passing because time is the potential for change.

If nothing significant is changing then time is still passing.