Avicenna’s Interpretation of the Aristotelian Concept of Time
Aristotle characterized time as a number because he considered the earlier, later, and now being units associated with motion. In this context, the present study investigates time within the Peripatetic natural philosophy and the framework of numbered motion. However, time is a continuous quantity i...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Istanbul University Press
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Felsefe Arkivi |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/E1FB8647A29F495EBA55A5BF90E59D0B |
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| Summary: | Aristotle characterized time as a number because he considered the earlier, later, and now being units associated with motion. In this context, the present study investigates time within the Peripatetic natural philosophy and the framework of numbered motion. However, time is a continuous quantity in the system, while numbers are discontinuous. For this reason, the concept of numbers in the definition is seen to have created the problem of discontinuity regarding questions such as how to understand time as a number, the requirement of a counting soul and relation to plurality. In fact, Aristotle accepted time as number in the sense that it is counted because it is continuous. Hellenistic commentators also tried rationalization of time as a number. The basic claim of this article is that Avicenna’s conception of time is a reconstructed version of the Aristotelian conceptualization of time. By distinguishing between the continuous and discontinuous relationships among quantities, Avicenna established time as a conceptualized quantity that can be considered both as a magnitude and a measure. Accordingly, Avicenna considered time itself is continuous due to magnitude being continuous, with numbers being added to timeas accidents. In additional, he considered time to not necessitate a counting soul in terms of magnitude. This article examines Avicenna’s reconstruction of the concept of time through the use of number, magnitude, continuity, and celestial spheres. |
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| ISSN: | 2667-7644 |