Time for Aristotle
Physics IV. 10-14
Coope, Ursula Birkbeck College, University of London
Print publication date: 2005 (this edition)
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: February 2006
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-924790-5







doi:10.1093/0199247900.003.0006

Ursula Coope
Abstract: This chapter explains Aristotle’s definition of time. He defines time as a kind of number of change. It is argued that when he says that time is a number, he means that it is what we count when we count nows in a certain way. In defining time as a kind of number, he is saying that it is essentially a kind of order, not (as is often supposed) that it is essentially measurable. It is argued that when he says that time is a number that it is countable and not a number with which we count, he is saying that time, though a number of a sort, is not a discrete plurality (and hence, not a number that could be used to count things). If ‘number’ is understood in the way that is suggested, then the claim that time is a number is compatible with the claim that time is continuous.

Keywords: definition, number, order, measurable, continuous, discrete, plurality,

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PART I INTRODUCTORY PUZZLES AND THE STARTING POINTS OF INQUIRY
PART II TIME'S DEPENDENCE ON CHANGE
PART III TIME AS A NUMBER AND TIME AS A MEASURE
PART IV THE SAMENESS AND DIFFERENCE OF TIMES AND NOWS
PART V TWO CONSEQUENCES OF ARISTOTLE'S ACCOUNT OF TIME