The enigmatic reality of time : Aristotle, Plotinus, and today / by Michael F. Wagner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wagner, Michael F., 1952-

Series:

Medieval philosophy, mathematics, and science.

Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic tradition ; v. 7.

Ancient Mediterranean and medieval texts and contexts

Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic tradition, 1871-188X ; v. 7

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Time.

Aristotle.

Plotinus.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (386 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The nature and existence of time is a fascinating and puzzling feature of human life and awareness. This book integrates interdisciplinary work and approaches from such fields as physics, psychology, biology, phenomenology, and technology studies with philosophical analyses and considerations to explain a number of facets of the perennnial question of time's nature and existence, both in contemporary and in its initial classical Greek context; and it then explores and explains two of the most influential investigations of time in classical Western thought: Aristotle's, as presented in his Physics , and the (neo)Platonist Plotinus' in his treatise On Time and Eternity . Original interpretative perspectives are argued in both cases, and special attention is paid to Plotinus as partly responding to and critiquing Aristotle's account.

Contents:

Part I: Dimensions of time's enigma

Is time real?

Eleaticism, temporality, and time

The makings of a temporal universe

Pastness and futurity

Synchronicity and asynchronicity

Temporal pace and measurement

Presentness, or the present

Aristotle's real account of time

Parmenidean time and the impossible now

Cosmic motion and the speed of time

Time as the motion of the cosmos

Time as the cosmos itself

Time as motion and all change

Temporal cognition and the return of the now

Real temporality in an Aristotelian world

Does Aristotle refute eleaticism?

Bisection argument I

Bisection argument II

Bisection argument III

Plotinus' vitalistic Platonism and the real origins of time

Temporality, eternality, and Plotinus' new Platonism

Plotinus' critique of Aristotelian motion

Indefinite temporality and the measure of motion

Plotinus' neoplatonic account of time.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [365]-371) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-39981-0

9786612399817

90-474-4360-8

OCLC:

567744258

Publisher Number:

10.1163/ej.9789004170254.i-378 DOI