TIME, THE NUMBER OF MOVEMENT 297 



fore he resolved to have a moving image of eternity, and when he 

 set in order the heaven, he made this image eternal but moving 

 according to number, while eternity itself rests in unity; and this 

 image we call time.^ 



Here Plato identifies time with the motion of the spheres, hence 

 a being of nature. Even without an intelligence time would be 

 a reality because it is nothing more than the actual movement 

 of the spheres. It was precisely on this point, that is, the identi- 

 fication of time and movement, that Aristotle criticized Plato 

 asking how, if time and movement were the same, we could 

 speak of movement being fast or slow. 



Aristotle denied their identity, yet admitted that time and 

 movement were always found together. His conclusion was 

 that time was the number of movement according to a before 

 and after. It is the reality of this number that we are investi- 

 gating. As mentioned above, Aristotle's position is doubtful 

 and because of the uncertain condition of his text we cannot 

 look to him for a satisfactory solution of the problem. His 

 text quoted at the beginning, based on William of Moerbeke, 

 would seem to put time in the mind and only movement in 

 nature. The Latin version of the Arabic also tends to support 

 this interpretation. Moreover the renaissance texts render this 

 passage in the sense that if the soul is not, there is no time but 

 only motion which is numerable. 



In spite of these numerous indications that Aristotle meant 

 that if there were no soul there would be no time, it seems that 

 his thought is otherwise and in fact seems to require that time 

 be in nature even without soul. In support of this thought we 

 call attention to the fact that for Aristotle number in the defini- 

 tion of time is taken as " numbered " number, (not " number- 

 ing " number) , and so a being of nature. Likewise Aristotle 

 reduces time to quantity, and places " when " as an accident 

 caused by time. 



Among philosophers from Aristotle to Saint Thomas we find 



^ Plato, Timaeus, 37 D, trans, by Benjamin Jowett (New York, 1892), III, 

 p. 456. 



