Literature Network » Saint Augustine

The measurement of time

Content courtesy of

From: International Herald Tribune
Date: 20050331
Author:Clark Blaise

Clark Blaise
International Herald Tribune
03-31-2005
Saint Augustine sets the tone for any serious discussion of time: ''I know what it is, but when I am asked to define it, I cannot.'' Eighteen hundred years later, we know that a considerable amount of "it" has passed, but we remain as helpless as the ancient Carthaginian in defining exactly what it is. Augustine famously compared the passing of time to the flow of a river past a stationary observerupstream for the unknown future, here for the present, downstream for the pooling pastsetting up a false (if comforting) trichotomy that has ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Other Articles on Saint Augustine

About Our Articles: We've partnered with Highbeam Research to provide these article excerpts for your research needs. However, due to copyright laws, we cannot publish the whole article. To view these articles in full length you'll need to use the link above to access the free trial at Highbeam.