This paper reconstructs the relationship between the now, motion, and number in Aristotle to clarify the nature of the now, and, thereby, the relationship between motion and time. Although it is clear that for Aristotle motion, and, more generally, change, are prior to time, the nature of this priority is not clear. But if time is the number of motion, then the priority of motion can be grasped by examining his theory of number. This paper aims to show that, just (...) as numbers are generated by the soul, time is not presupposed by motion, but emerges through the soul’s articulation of motion. Time is co-constituted by the soul and motion. The now is the key to understanding both the contribution of motion and soul to the being of time. The now is part of the soul’s articulation of motion, and sets the stage for an act that distinguishes a unit from its underlying motion. The now, then, sets up an abstraction by which the soul generates the temporal number from motion. Reconstructing this account of abstraction allows us to formulate more strongly Aristotle’s claim to the ontological dependence of time on motion. The paper then gives a systematic overview of the relationships between the now and number in order to address the question of whether the now might be extended. It closes with an examination of the possibility that motion depends on time, and how universal time is possible. (shrink)

[ES] El presente artículo estudia el influjo de los tratados físicos de Aristóteles sobre la concepción tomista en torno al lugar del infinito en el cosmos creado. Se analiza la posición sostenida por el Aquinate respecto a cuatro aspectos fundamentales de la teoría aristotélica en torno al infinito: existencia de una sustancia infinita, existencia de un cuerpo infinito, existencia de un infinito en acto y la infinitud del tiempo. Asimismo se expone el empleo de la teoría aristotélica del movimiento y (...) los lugares naturales, por parte del Doctor angélico, para la refutación de toda posición que conciba el acto de creación como una mutación temporalmente sucesiva, así como su caracterización de la divinidad como sustancia perfecta cuya infinitud no puede ser comprendida bajo la noción de cantidad. [EN] This article studies the influence of Aristotle’s physical treatises on the Thomist conception on the place of infinity in the created cosmos. It analizes the position held by Aquinas on four fundamental aspects of the Aristotelian theory about infinity: existence of an infinite substance, existence of an infinite body, existence of an infinite in act and the infinity of time. Is also exposed the use of the Aristotelian theory of motion and natural places by the Angelic Doctor for the refutation of every position that presents the act of creation as a temporally successive mutation and his characterization of divinity as a perfect substance whose infinity can not be understood under the notion of quantity. (shrink)

This book investigates what change is, according to Aristotle, and how it affects his conception of being. Mark Sentesy argues that change leads Aristotle to develop first-order metaphysical concepts such as matter, potency, actuality, sources of being, and the teleology of emerging things. He shows that Aristotle’s distinctive ontological claim—that being is inescapably diverse in kind—is anchored in his argument for the existence of change. -/- Aristotle may be the only thinker to have given a noncircular definition of change. When (...) he gave this definition, arguing that change is real was a losing proposition. To show that it exists, he had to rework the way philosophers understood reality. His groundbreaking analysis of change has long been interpreted through a Platonist lens, however, in which being is conceived as unchanging. Offering a comprehensive reexamination of the relationship between change and being in Aristotle, Sentesy makes an important contribution to scholarship on Aristotle, ancient philosophy, the history and philosophy of science, and metaphysics. (shrink)

In this contribution, I will argue for an ontological understanding of time as temporality. This, however, implies that in a certain sense being is temporality, by which I mean that on an ontological level temporality is nothing but the process of change, i.e. the dynamic aspect of being in its becoming, changing, and perishing, and that concrete beings are not merely in time, but they are temporal. This leads to the conclusion that actual time is the process of change that (...) becoming beings are, as well as the conclusion that reality is fundamentally temporal as argued by process metaphysicians like Alfred North Whitehead, Henri Bergson, Martin Heidegger, and Gilles Deleuze. The investigation begins with first establishing the methodological difficulties involved in thinking temporality as an ontological feature. In a second step, dynamic ontologies are introduced as the conceptual background best suited to think ontological temporality and their difference to event-ontologies is explained. Finally, the distinction between temporality and linear time is clarified. This introduction of temporality ends with some arguments for the existence of temporality that are inspired by Aristotle’s famous investigations into the nature of time. After having thus introduced temporality as an ontological feature and argued for the existence and relevance of it, its implications for our understanding of the dimensions of time and especially for anticipation are discussed. (shrink)