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Even though the three types of times do not have a real existence, people still talk about and measure time. Since a person cannot measure something that does not exist, in order for him to be measuring time, it must exist for him in a sense. Augustine concluded that the existence of time in the humans can be achieved through existing in the present and by experiencing memories (past) and predictions (future) (Book XI: 20). Instead of stating there are three times in past, present, and future perspectives which are proven to have no real existence, Augustine now reasons that time can be in some sort of existence as such: “a present of past things, a present of present things, and a present of future things”. This is what he means; if a person remembers how things those were in the past were like when they were at the present, it is through his memories at the present time, and if a person predicts how things will exist in the future, it is through the notion of present happenings and making extrapolation at this present time. Augustine now holds the idea that time can be measured only when it is in the passing processes through the present moment since it cannot be measured before passing, for they will be nothing and cannot be measured after it has passed, for there will no longer be anything existing to be measured. However, Augustine does not know how we can actually measure this instant of the present although it appears to be measurable to people because the present, as stated previously, does not have actual duration or extension. He disagrees with other philosophers or astrologers’ way of measuring time through the movement of the heavenly bodies because he believes that bodies are just moving in time and not time itself (Book XI: 24); even if the sun did stop as told in the bible, the hours that make up one day will still pass and therefore, time cannot be measured through movement of bodies.

The idea Augustine holds, in addition to the statement that time has existence only in a sense of present instant with no duration, is that time is a extension of the soul into the temporal world (Book XI: 26). Augustine knows that this would mean the soul is falling away from what is previously believed to be close to the goodness as in God, but this is the only possible way so far to measure time. When people measure time, they measure as if time is the property of the soul in that people are measuring things in their own memories at the present moment; since the past does not actually exist and the only way to measure time then is to measure it while it is passing at the “present of past things” state, people consider things from the past as though happening in the present only through memories. Since memories cannot be perceived by bodily aspects but only through the mind or the soul, time is an extension of the soul in a sense for Augustine.

In summary, Augustine states that time, past, present, and future do not have real existence because the present instant has no duration, that the reason why people still speak of time as measurable is when it is in passing process to reach to the non-existing past through the present, that time, as widely used by most, can only exist in the present through memories and predictions, and that time is in some way an extension of the soul.

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Literatures Cited
Saint Augustine. Confessions.1961. Penguin Group, Book XI.

Copyrighted By:  Kaung Ko | KMKBlog.com