Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects exist and event s occur and have relative position

and direction.[1] Physical space is often con ceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider i t, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum known as spac etime. In mathematics, "spaces" are examined with different numbers of dimension s and with different underlying structures. The concept of space is considered t o be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe. How ever, disagreement continues between philosophers over whether it is itself an e ntity, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework. Debates concerning the nature, essence and the mode of existence of space date b ack to antiquity; namely, to treatises like the Timaeus of Plato, or Socrates in his reflections on what the Greeks called khora (i.e. "space"), or in the Physi cs of Aristotle (Book IV, Delta) in the definition of topos (i.e. place), or eve n in the later "geometrical conception of place" as "space qua extension" in the Discourse on Place (Qawl fi al-Makan) of the 11th century Arab polymath Alhazen .[2] Many of these classical philosophical questions were discussed in the Renai ssance and then reformulated in the 17th century, particularly during the early development of classical mechanics. In Isaac Newton's view, space was absolute in the sense that it existed permanently and independently of whether there were an y matter in the space.[3] Other natural philosophers, notably Gottfried Leibniz, thought instead that space was in fact a collection of relations between object s, given by their distance and direction from one another. In the 18th century, the philosopher and theologian George Berkeley attempted to refute the "visibili ty of spatial depth" in his Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision. Later, the met aphysician Immanuel Kant said neither space nor time can be empirically perceive d, they are elements of a systematic framework that humans use to structure all experiences. Kant referred to "space" in his Critique of Pure Reason as being: a subjective "pure a priori form of intuition", hence it is an unavoidable contri bution of our human faculties. In the 19th and 20th centuries mathematicians began to examine non-Euclidean geo metries, in which space can be said to be curved, rather than flat. According to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, space around gravitational fiel ds deviates from Euclidean space.[4] Experimental tests of general relativity ha ve confirmed that non-Euclidean space provides a better model for the shape of s pace.