Original scientific paper
Petrić's Notion of Time
Mihaela Girardi-Karšulin
; Institut za filozofiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Petrić’s notion of time is based on his critique of Aristotle’s notion of time, and relies on Augustine’s concept of time. Petrić’s concept of time is nevertheless different from both Aristotle’s and Augustine’s notions of time. Aristotle’s notion of time lies within the context of solving Zeno’s motion aporias, that is, the notion of continuous time should provide the intelligibility of motion. Augustine’s notion of time, however, lies within the issue of God’s creation. Time, like anything created, cannot ensure any objectivity or intelligibility; instead, it actually represents – through memory and expectation – the way in which soul transcends the instantaneous quality of its presence. The problem of Zeno’s aporias was never an issue for Augustine. Objectivity and intelligibility of natural occurrences, of motion, are not being discussed. Petrić’s critique of Aristotle’s notion of time relies on Augustine, stating that time is something that essentially belongs to the soul. Time is a subjective matter. Petrić’s understanding of time, and, consequently, of mathematics, can be defined as psychologistic relativism. Time as a measure or a number of motion is not a guarantee of the intelligibility of motion because Petrić sees both measure and number as psychic phenomena, i.e. as contingent and limited to the factual human reason, and never as eternally valid and necessary separate forms whereby we determine the laws of natural motions. Contrary to Augustine, however, the issue of intelligibility and cognizability of natural motions is an important philosophical issue for Petrić. Abandoning the notion of time as a measure or number of motion, Petrić attempted to set foundations for a physics without time.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
74986
URI
Publication date:
4.12.2000.
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