Space of Time

David van Dusen, M.Phil. (Trinity Saint David), M.Phil. (Leuven), is a doctoral fellow of the De Wulf-Mansion Centre at the University of Leuven, and a former visiting research fellow of the Augustinianum in Rome.

• AcknowledgementsList of Abbreviations Note on CitationsSYNOPSISDilation and the Question of TimeINTRODUCTIONTo Recover Augustine’s Time-Question0Proem1 Augustine and the Temporal Intrigue1.1Against a Truncated Interpretation of Confessions XI1.2Preliminary Remarks on the Term ‘Sensualist’1.3Axiology and Temporality in Augustine’s Confessions1.4Time in Augustine’s Triplex Division of Philosophy2Augustine and the Physical Question of Time2.1Time and Augustine’s Rerum Natura2.2Time in the Confessions: A Typology of the Received Interpretations2.3Confessions XI and Typologies of Time in AntiquityPART IAnticipations and Clarifications3 Remarks on the Genre and Sources of Augustine’s Confessions3.1Preliminary Remarks on Genre3.2Sallust’s Conspiracy of Catiline: A Source for the Confessions?3.3Confessio Ignorantiae: Cicero and Augustine’s Confessions3.4Confessio Scientiae: Epicurus and Lucretius in Augustine’s Confessions3.5Confessions X to XII: Dialectics and Song3.6Concluding Remarks on Genre4 Towards a Lexical Clarification of ‘Time’ (Conf. XI.22–24) 4.1A Distribution of Augustine’s Time-Investigation (Conf. XI.14–29)4.2“We Say ‘Time,’ We Say ‘Times’” (Conf. XI.22–24)4.3Towards Augustine’s “Power and Nature of Time” (Conf. X.6–7, XI.23–24)5 Towards the Speculative Terrain of Confessions XII (Conf. XI.30–31) 5.1Temporal Presence: Varieties of ‘Impresence’ 5.2Temporal Dilation: A Preliminary Characterization5.3Expectatio Is Never Praescientia (Conf. XI.31)5.4A Discarnate Mind and a Dilation of the Senses (Conf. XI.31)PART IITime Is Illuminated by Timelessness6 What Is and Is Not in Question in Confessions XII 6.1Time and the Prophetic ‘Letter’6.2How Timelessness Will Illuminate Time7 Cohesion to God, Inhesion of the Flesh: Augustine’s Caelum Intellectuale7.1Axiology and Temporality Revisited7.2Augustine’s Hyper-Heavenly (Caelum Caeli)7.3Timelessness and the Root-Verb Haerere7.4More on Augustine’s Root-Verb Haerere8 Corpus et Anima: The Duplicity of Praesens from Confessions X8.1“A Body and a Soul Are Present in Me” (Conf. X.6)8.2The Sense of Anima, the Sense of Animus (Conf. X.7)8.3“Cattle and Birds Possess Memory” (Conf. X.17)8.4Excursus: Time Is in the Beasts 8.5The Root-Sense of Anima and Animus (Conf. X–XII)9 Physical Movement and Mutive Times: Augustine’s Materia Informis9.1Informitas and Timelessness (Conf. XII.6)9.2“Times are Produced by the Movements of Things” (Conf. XII.8)9.3The Register of ‘Mutive Times’ in Confessions XII9.4The Evidence for ‘Mutive Times’ in Confessions XII9.5Excursus on Logical Precedence (Conf. XII.29)9.6Excursus on Sensual ‘Outness’ (Epist. 137) PART IIIA Sensualist Interpretation of Confessions XI10 Intimacy with the Flesh Is Intimacy with Time (Conf. XI–XII)10.1“Words Begun and Ended, Sounding in Times” (Conf. XII.27)10.2Familiaritas Carnis and Familiaritas Temporis (Conf. XI.14)11 Times and Time from Augustine’s Eternity-Meditation (Conf. XI.3–13) 11.1Time, Times, and a Proto-Distentio (Conf. XI.11–13)11.2Imago, Affectio and Distentio in the Confessions,11.3“Sense Roves” and “Sense Dilates” (Conf. XI.13, XI.31)12 A Preparation of Augustine’s Time-Investigation (Conf. XI.11–29)12.1The Soul’s Capacity to Sense Time (Conf. XI.15–16)12.2“A Long Time Cannot Become Long ...” (Conf. XI.11)12.3The Production of Times as a Condition for Time (Conf. XI.11, XII.8)13 From a Sense of Passing Time to a Dilation of the Senses (Conf. XI.15–28) 13.1Praesens Tempus and a Sense of Temporal Intervals (Conf. XI.15–16)13.2Times Are Not ‘Times’ and Presence Is Not ‘Presence’ (Conf. XI.20)13.3“As I Just Said, We Measure Times as They Pass” (Conf. XI.21)13.4Vagaries of Motion and the Introduction of Dilation (Conf. XI.24–26)13.5Sensation and Originary Temporal Mensuration (Conf. XI.27–28) 13.6“The Verse Is Sensed by a Clear Sensation” (Conf. XI.27)13.7“Something Remains Infixed in My Memory” (Conf. XI.27)13.8“These Are ‘Times,’ or I Do Not Measure Times” (Conf. XI.27)13.9“Songs and the Dimensions of Movements” (Conf. XI.27–28)ENVOITime Exceeds Us because Time Is in UsAppendices1. Remarks on Plotinus, Aristotle, Sextus Empiricus and Augustine2. Augustine and the Paris Condemnations of 12773. Pierre Gassendi’s Metaphysical Confession of Time4. Thomas Hobbes’s Physical Confession of TimeSelect BibliographyIndices

"David Van Dusen has succeeded where Augustine never quite achieved stability: in parsing and rationalizing his complex, subtle, and important view of time. Van Dusen's philosophical learning and acuity stand him, and Augustine, in good stead." James J. O'Donnell, University Professor of Classics, Georgetown University."Van Dusen examines subjectivist and objectivist accounts of Augustine's concept of time, proposing in their place a novel reading of Confessions X to XII. His comprehensive analysis - lucid and stimulating - advances our understanding of Augustine's views on time, temporality and memory." Gerard O'Daly, Emeritus Professor of Latin, University College London"David van Dusen uses philosophical “outsider” perspectives on Augustine as point of departure for a complex, philologically cautious and profoundly contextualized reading of the Confessions that is of high originality. This new reading also opens onto recent re-appraisals of Augustine’s anything but “dualistic and disembodied” theological anthropology." Johannes Hoff, Professor of Systematic Theology, Heythrop College, University of London"David van Dusen's book The Space of Time continues a new approach by philosophers, such as Lyotard, to read Augustine philosophically. Van Dusen enacts a detailed and masterly reading of the seminal sections of the Confessions on time and temporality. It is through such a reading that we realize the debt that Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger and others have towards Augustine." James Luchte, Senior Lecturer of Philosophy, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David“A ‘post-phenomenological’ reading of Augustine on time, The Space of Time … argues through close engagement with the Latin text that, when Augustine says that time is distentio animi, he means that it is a ‘dilation’ not of the mind, but of one’s sensory experience.” – George Boys-Stones, Durham University, Phronesis. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy 60.4 (Sept. 2015)“David van Dusen has been able to offer up an inventive reading of Augustine on time […] Most striking is his distinction between time (tempus) and times (tempora). Much of the confusion surrounding Augustine’s account of time has resulted from inattention to the difference between this singular and that plural. […] Van Dusen’s book deftly applies its broad intellectual scope and erudite sense for detail to a refined – yet undoubtedly central – section of Augustine’s oeuvre. While some of its bolder claims may yet require further attention, the originality of the interpretation on offer here demands that we take it seriously.” – Sean Hannan, University of Chicago, Louvain Studies 38 (2014)“[A] highly erudite and enthusiastically written account … Although Lucretian influence has been observed in Augustine before, its extent and depth in Confessions have never been studied in this intensity … Augustine takes the material constitution of reality much more seriously than, for example, Neoplatonists of a more Alexandrian persuasion. Van Dusen has clearly demonstrated this for the concept of time in Confessions. … [A] fine new study on Augustine’s concept of time in Confessions, which should be heeded by all who take an interest in the philosophical study of time.” – Josef Lössl, Cardiff University, The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 9 (Oct. 2015)