St. Augustine and the Time

in #philosophy8 years ago (edited)

I brought this thinker and this particular topic because it is a subtlety and depth rarely seen.

Preface

Despite being a thought of the medieval era, he brings a lot today. And for those who see thoughts of Catholic philosophers with a certain fear, rest assured that it does not impose the Christian ideology in this passage.

Wonders whether Augustine in Book XI, Chapter XIV-XII of the Confessions.

So What is time?

"If you do not ask me I know. But if you ask me I can not explain." He begins.

So how he wants to address the issue if he himself can not explain?
There's that philosophy comes in. We will observe and try to reach a conclusion with him.

First Thought

Our perception of time allows divide it into three parts: past, present and future. From our experience we know that these three days are quite distinct from each other.

The past and the future

The past is the time it moves away from us, our conscience, our perception; is all that is no longer palpable, simply because it is gone. This time exists only in the present, because it no longer exists. So all our thoughts of the past are only reflections that our current state of a time that no longer exists. So all our thinking about the past is about influence of our present state. If we are happy when we think in the past it will appear in a different way than if we were sad.
When we think of the past and the future, we no longer think in the present, then we should not live thinking about those times because they do not exist and all that we attribute to them is conditioned by our current perception. We only have present of things past, present of things present, present of future things.

What is the present

This should be the strict sense time but does not remain, eludes us between a past that is gone and a future that is not yet. The present "is" an eternal today and therefore has no extension, the past and the future are also not measurable in their being, because the past is no longer and the future is not yet.

If you liked i can continue. Cheers