300 SISTER M. JOCELYN 



The young Thomas of the Sentences thought time dependent 

 on the mind: "... the notion of time is in some way com- 

 pleted by the action of the soul counting . . ." ^*^ Yet in his 

 commentary on the Physics he adopts a quite different position. 

 Whether this change was due to the influence of St. Albert we 

 do not know. In the commentary on Aristotle's treatment of 

 this problem Saint Thomas says: ". . . it is necessary to say 

 either that there is no time if there is no soul or to say more 

 truly that without the soul time is a kind of being {utcumque 

 ens) ." ^^ In explaining this St. Thomas says that if there is 

 movement without a mind, so too is there time because the 

 prior and the posterior in motion are, and this is just what time 

 is, namely the prior and posterior in motion in so far as they 

 are numerable. Realizing that it was this " numerable " which 

 seemed to demand a soul St. Thomas clarifies its meaning: 

 enumeration depends on a mind, but the " to be " of numbered 

 things does not depend on mind (unless it be the cause of 

 things, such as the divine intellect) . As there can be sensibles 

 without sense existing, so the numerable and number can exist 

 without numbering.^^ 



Moreover, Saint Thomas questions the validity of Aristotle's 

 analogy comparing number and the sensible, i. e. that just as if 

 there is no one to sense there is no sensible so if there is no one 

 to number there is no number. Commenting on this he says 

 that it is forte conditionalis: 



For if there is a sensible, it can be sensed; and if it can be sensed 

 there can be someone sensing. But it does not follow that if there 

 is a sensible that there is someone sensing. It also follows that if 

 there is something numerable there can be someone numbering 

 . . . but it does not follow that if there is no one numbering that 

 there is not anything numerable.^^ 



To understand how Saint Thomas can hold there is a number 



" St. Thomas, II Sent., dist. 12, q. 5, a. 2. 

 " St. Thomas, In IV Phys., lect. 23, n. 5. 

 " Ibid. 

 " Ibid. 



