This paper discusses three different conceptions of time that appear in St. Augustine’s works The City of God and Confessions. In some critical reviews of his work, these theories of time are held to contradict one another, leading to a suggestion that the theory espoused in The City of God is the more mature version, which is better at reflecting St. Augustine’s thought. This paper argues that the theories not only have no contradictions between one another, but, instead, are actually compatible, since the ontological commitment contained in their assumptions is restricted. To support this position, the paper draws on St. Augustine’s own works and on the approach of the analytic philosophy of time in order to show the compatibility of the various conceptions of time. Finally, although St. Augustine did not construct a single, unified theory encompassing several conceptions of time, this is not a shortcoming of his philosophy – and the creation of such a theory remains problematic even today. It is concluded that a general theory of time was not St. Augustine’s intention, that the theories in question are mutually compatible, and that neither is more mature or more important than the other.
Augustinas, A., 2004. Išpažinimai. Iš lotynų k. vertė E. Ulčinaitė, V. Stalioraitytė, T. Vaičiulis. Vilnius: Aidai.
Augustine, A., 2008. The City of God, Books VIII–XVI (The Fathers of the Church: Volume 14). Translated by G. G. Walsh, G. Monahan. Washington: Catholic University of America Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt32b1vc
Bacevičiūtė, D., 2012. Fenomenologinės pratybos, arba Dar kartą apie mėginimus aprašyti pirmapradę laiko patirtį. Athena: filosofijos studijos 8: 60–74. Prieiga per internetą: https://athena.lt/files/pdf/8/I-3.pdf.
Bacevičiūtė, D., 2016. Praeiga ir pertrūkis: fenomenologinės laiko sampratos transformacijos. Vilnius: Lietuvos kultūros tyrimų institutas
Brann, E. T. H., 1999. Augustine as Phenomenologist: A Time Diagram. In: Phenomenology: Japanese and American Perspectives, ed. B. C. Hopkins. Dordrecht: Springer, 243–252. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2610-8_13
Cardoso Jr., H. R., 2021. The Analytical Metaphysics of Time and the Recent Theory of History: Overtones of the Debate about Presentism. História Da Historiografia: International Journal of Theory and History of Historiography 14(35): 145–169. https://doi.org/10.15848/hh.v14i35.1739
Čiurlionis, J., 2005. P. Lyndsas: judėjimo neapibrėžtumo problema. Problemos 68: 101–108. https://doi.org/10.15388/Problemos.2005.%204071
Dagys, J., 2008. J. McTaggartas ir H. Melloras apie laiką. Problemos 73: 115–121. https://doi.org/10.15388/Problemos.2008.0.2013
Deasy, D., 2017. What is Presentism? Noûs 51(2): 378–397. https://doi.org/10.1111/nous.12109
Dolev, Y., 2000. The Tenseless Theory of Time: Insights and Limitations. The Review of Metaphysics 54(2): 259–288.
Dyke, H., 2007. Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy. New York: Routledge.
Farr, M., 2020. C-Theories of Time: On the Adirectionality of Time. Philosophy Compass 15(12): e12714. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12714
Helm, P., 2014. Thinking Eternally. In: Augustineʼs Confessions: Philosophy in Autobiography, ed. W. E. Mann. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 135–154. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577552.003.0007
Jonkus, D., 2009. Patirtis ir refleksija. Fenomenologinės filosofijos akiračiai. Kaunas: Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto leidykla.
Ingthorsson, R., 2016. McTaggart’s Paradox. New York: Routledge.
Karfikova, L., 2012. Grace and the Will according to Augustine. Boston: Brill.
Kiauka, T., 2006. Augustino laiko sampratos ontologinės ir teologinės ypatybės. Problemos 70: 126–133. Prieiga per internetą: https://www.zurnalai.vu.lt/problemos/article/view/4038/2798.
Kiauka, T., 2012. Ką reiškia mąstyti laiką? Athena: filosofijos studijos 20(8): 37–59. Prieiga per internetą: https://athena.lt/files/pdf/8/I-2.pdf.
Knuuttila, S., 2001. Time and Creation in Augustine. In: The Cambridge Companion to Augustine, eds. N. Kretzmann, E. Stump. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 103–115.
Lacey, H. M., 1968. Empiricism and Augustineʼs Problems about Time. The Review of Metaphysics 22(2): 219–245. Prieiga per internetą: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20124811?origin=JSTOR-pdf.
Lamb, M. L., 2007. Eternity Creates And Redeems Time: A Key To Augustine’s Confessions Within A Theology Of History. In: Divine Creation in Ancient, Medieval, and Early Modern Thought, eds. M. Treschow, W. Otten & W. Hannam. Boston: Brill, 117–140.
Le Poidevin, R., 1991. Change, Cause and Contradiction: A Defence of the Tenseless Theory of Time. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Marion, J. L., 2012. In the Self’s Place: The Approach of Saint Augustine. Translated by J. L. Kosky. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Matthews, G., 2005. Augustine. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
McGinnis, J., 2013. Creation and Eternity in Medieval Philosophy. In: A Companion to the Philosophy of Time, eds. H. Dyke, A. Bardon. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 73–86. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118522097.ch5
McTaggart, J. E., 1908. The Unreality of Time. Mind 17(68): 457–474. Prieiga per internetą: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2248314.
Mickevičius, A., 1996. E. Husserlis: fenomenologinė laiko tyrimo specifika ir struktūra. Problemos 49: 16–26. https://doi.org/10.15388/Problemos.1996.49.6990
Morgan, J. M., 2022. McTaggart’s A and B Series and the Time Epistemologies of St. Augustine, Nāgārjuna, and Stephen Hawking. Kritike 16(1): 22–40. https://doi.org/10.25138/16.1.a1
O’Daly, G., 1987. Augustine’s Philosophy of Mind. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Orilia, F., Oaklander, L. N., 2013. Do We Really Need a New B-theory of Time? Topoi 34(1): 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-013-9179-6
Pickup, M., 2021. The Problem of Change Restored. In: From Existentialism to Metaphysics: The Philosophy of Stephen Priest, eds. B. P. Göcke, R. Weir. Berlin: Peter Lang, 203–222.
Prior, A. N., 1968. Papers on Time and Tense. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Prosser, S., 2012. Why Does Time Seem to Pass? Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 85(1): 92–116. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1933-1592.2010.00445.x
Quine, W. V. O., 2013. Word and Object. London: The MIT Press.
Rogers, K., 2008. Anselm on Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smith, Q., 1987. Problems with the New Tenseless Theory of Time. Philosophical Studies: An International Journal for Philosophy in the Analytic Tradition 52(3): 371–392. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00354054
Sorabji, R., 1983. Time, Creation, and the Continuum. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Steiner, T. N., 2024. Arthur Prior and Augustine’s Alleged Presentism. Philosophies 9(162): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies9060162
Šventasis Raštas: Senasis ir Naujasis Testamentas, 1998. Vilnius: Katalikų pasaulis.
Teske, R. J., 1996. Paradoxes of Time in Saint Augustine. Milwauke: Marquette University Press.
Valinskaitė, V., 2020. Laiko patirties melancholijoje analizė remiantis Husserlio fenomenologiniais tyrinėjimais. Problemos 97: 164–175. https://doi.org/10.15388/Problemos.97.13
West, J. L. A., 2001. St. Augustine on Human Temporality and Divine Eternity. Faith & Reason: The Journal of Christendom College XXVI(2): 1–7. Prieiga per internetą: https://media.christendom.edu/2001/06/st-augustine-on-human-temporality-and-divine-eternity/.
Wetzel, J., 2021. Books 11 & 12: Angels and Demons: The Eternal Framing of the Two Cities. In: The Cambridge Companion to Augustineʼs City of God, ed. Fr. D. V. Meconi, S. J. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 145–166. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108505307.009
Zimmerman, D. W., 2008. The Privileged Present: Defending an “A-theory” of Time. In: Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics, eds. T. Sider, J. P. Hawthorne & D. W. Zimmerman. Malden: Blackwell, 211–225.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.