Volume II,Issue IV, March 2026
Volume-II, Issue-IV, March, 2026 |
Received: 17.03.2026 | Accepted: 24.03.2026 | ||
Published Online: 31.03.2026 | Page No: | ||
DOI: 10.69655/atmadeep.vol.2.issue.04W. | |||
ঈশ্বরসৃষ্ট কাল ও মানবচেতনার কাল: মধ্যযুগীয় দার্শনিক সেন্ট অগাস্টাইনের সময়তত্ত্বের দ্বৈত ব্যাখ্যা সুব্রত ক্ষেত্রী, গবেষক, দর্শন বিভাগ, যাদবপুর বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়, পশ্চিমবঙ্গ, ভারত |
ABSTRACT | ||
The nature of time has long been one of the most fundamental
questions in human thought. While our ordinary experience assumes time as
self-evident, philosophical inquiry has critically examined its nature,
existence, and structure. Medieval philosophers, Augustine offered a profound
analysis of time in his works On Genesis (389) and Confessions (397),
especially in Book XI. Augustine presents two complementary perspectives on
time. In On Genesis, he developed a cosmological and
objective account of time. According to this view, time is a creation of God
and began simultaneously with the creation of the world. God is eternal,
changeless, and exists outside time; therefore, asking what God was doing
“before” creation is meaningless because time itself did not exist prior to
creation.
In Confessions (Book XI),
Augustine saws a psychological or subjective interpretation of time. He argues
that time is closely related to human consciousness and is experienced through
mental processes. The past is known through memory, the present through
immediate perception, and the future through expectation. Thus, time is not
simply an external reality but also a phenomenon experienced within the human
mind. Augustine’s analysis reveals a tension between these two
perspectives—time as an objective creation of God and time as a subjective
experience of human consciousness. By integrating cosmological and
psychological approaches, Augustine provides a unique and influential framework
for understanding the nature of time in medieval philosophy. | ||
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