Arguments in St Augustine’s Confessions

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Arguments in St Augustine’s Confessions In St Augustine Confessions Book 11, he strongly disagrees with the idea that time is “the motion of a body”. He states that time is the extension of our mind. The key word in his argument is “perception”. First of all, he mentions that past and future do not exist, since time past is “no longer” and time present is “not yet”. One would argue that we still remember the ice cream that we ate yesterday, wasn’t real? Augustine explained that as the “drawn out of the memory”. When we talk about the ice cream now, we form a picture of the ice cream in our mind. The ice cream itself has already gone which does not exist anymore, but we see it in our brain in present. Therefore, what we really been talking about is the past thing in its present mode. As for the future, Augustine calls them expectations. Sometimes people say, “It will rain soon”. Raining is not seen yet, so it does not exist, but the signs of raining are seen. For example, when we see thick black clouds and lightning, we expect rain. We use signs that we perceive in present to form a prediction of the future. Augustine concludes that that there are three times: a time present of things past; a time present of things present; and a time present of things future. Thus, time could only exist and be measured in present. Augustine’s arguments are clear. However, I have a question that I don’t understand. His point of view is based on that “past things” equal to “past”, and “future things” equal to “future”, but are these two exact same concepts? What about the pure interval of

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