Physics

original: "Physicorum"; referring to a commentary on Aristotle's Physics.

...which is far from the present. Truly, "suddenly" occurs in an imperceptible time because of its brevity. Moreover, "instantly" [subito], as the blessed Dionysius Dionysius the Areopagite, a 5th-6th century Christian philosopher says in The Mystical Theology: is that which exists on account of its form [speciem], and what is brought forth from the non-apparent into the manifest. Furthermore, it should be noted that "time" is understood in multiple ways. For in one way, time is spoken of according to how it accompanies natural motion. And in another way, according to how it accompanies any change [mutationi]: whether that be natural, or above nature, and whether it be in bodily forms or in spiritual forms.

For the time that accompanies natural motion is a property of the motion it accompanies. And therefore its nature and principles depend on the principles of motion. Now, motion is a property of the moved object, insofar as it is movable. And therefore it originates from it. Hence, since a movable object is by nature divisible, and is partly at the starting point original: "termino a quo" and partly at the end point original: "termino ad quem", and according to the medium through which it is moved, it possesses the character of both end and beginning. Therefore its motion is an imperfect act In Aristotelian thought, motion is an "imperfect" act because it is a process that has not yet reached its goal.; it derives its imperfection from the end point, but it derives being an "act" from the starting point.

And similarly, the time that accompanies it involves a "before" and "after," one of which relates to the starting point (the before), and the other to the end point (the after). And what can be grasped of time itself is the flowing now joined to the before and after. And this is the time in which the "nows" do not touch each other, nor follow each other immediately.

Circular library stamp of the Royal Library of Munich

And by this time is measured the motion of the first moved thing original: "primi mobilis"; the outermost sphere of the heavens which, in medieval science, drives the movement of all other celestial bodies, and consequently all motions that are under the motion of the heavens. For all motions, as the philosopher Aristotle says, are measured by the motion of the heavens, as if by the simplest thing of its kind. And similarly they are measured by the number of the motion of the heavens, as if by something externally accompanying them which is not in the same genus. Because "to be in time is to be in number," as the philosopher says, and in the same counting number there can be many things counted. For many things can be referred to a single number.

There is also another kind of time that accompanies change above nature, such as creation. Although creation does not imply a change in the Creator, it does imply a certain change in the creature. This change of the creature is nothing other than the existence of the creature after nothingness; and in this change one cannot find a "subject matter" upon which the change occurs. Nor can one find "privation" the state of lacking a quality as a starting point except according to reason, and not according to being. For when it is said "this is made from nothing," "nothing" does not posit a nature or matter, but only names an order according to the logic of a being compared to pure non-being. In reality, there is no order between being and non-being. And this is an indivisible time, just like the transformation itself; for in it one cannot find the logic of "perfect" and "imperfect" in any way, as one does in other motion.

There is also a third time that accompanies the motion of the soul, whose motion is—as Averroes 12th-century Andalusian philosopher says—a perfect act. And this is especially the case when the soul is moved toward grace, in which motion there is no "interception of a medium" meaning there is no physical distance or gradual transition through space from which the flow of time is caused. For the soul is always either under grace or under sin...