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From Robert Grosseteste to Jean-François Lyotard, Augustine’s suggestion that time is a “dilation of the soul” (distentio animi) has been taken up as a seminal and controversial time-concept, yet in The Space of Time, David van Dusen argues that this ‘dilation’ has been fundamentally misinterpreted.
Time in Confessions XI is a dilation of the senses—in beasts, as in humans. And Augustine’s time-concept in Confessions XI is not Platonic—but in schematic terms, Epicurean.
Identifying new influences on the Confessions—from Aristoxenus to Lucretius—while keeping Augustine’s phenomenological interpreters in view, The Space of Time is a path-breaking work on Confessions X to XII and a ranging contribution to the history of the concept of time.
Time in Confessions XI is a dilation of the senses—in beasts, as in humans. And Augustine’s time-concept in Confessions XI is not Platonic—but in schematic terms, Epicurean.
Identifying new influences on the Confessions—from Aristoxenus to Lucretius—while keeping Augustine’s phenomenological interpreters in view, The Space of Time is a path-breaking work on Confessions X to XII and a ranging contribution to the history of the concept of time.
Price: $216.00
Pages: 16
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Supplements to the Study of Time
Publication Date:
09 May 2014
ISBN: 9789004266865
Format: Hardcover
"David Van Dusen has succeeded where Augustine never quite achieved stability: in parsing and rationalizing his complex, subtle, and important view of time. Van Dusen's philosophical learning and acuity stand him, and Augustine, in good stead." James J. O'Donnell, University Professor of Classics, Georgetown University.
"Van Dusen examines subjectivist and objectivist accounts of Augustine's concept of time, proposing in their place a novel reading of Confessions X to XII. His comprehensive analysis - lucid and stimulating - advances our understanding of Augustine's views on time, temporality and memory." Gerard O'Daly, Emeritus Professor of Latin, University College London
"David van Dusen uses philosophical “outsider” perspectives on Augustine as point of departure for a complex, philologically cautious and profoundly contextualized reading of the Confessions that is of high originality. This new reading also opens onto recent re-appraisals of Augustine’s anything but “dualistic and disembodied” theological anthropology." Johannes Hoff, Professor of Systematic Theology, Heythrop College, University of London
"David van Dusen's book The Space of Time continues a new approach by philosophers, such as Lyotard, to read Augustine philosophically. Van Dusen enacts a detailed and masterly reading of the seminal sections of the Confessions on time and temporality. It is through such a reading that we realize the debt that Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger and others have towards Augustine." James Luchte, Senior Lecturer of Philosophy, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David
“A ‘post-phenomenological’ reading of Augustine on time, The Space of Time … argues through close engagement with the Latin text that, when Augustine says that time is distentio animi, he means that it is a ‘dilation’ not of the mind, but of one’s sensory experience.” – George Boys-Stones, Durham University, Phronesis. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy 60.4 (Sept. 2015)
“David van Dusen has been able to offer up an inventive reading of Augustine on time […] Most striking is his distinction between time (tempus) and times (tempora). Much of the confusion surrounding Augustine’s account of time has resulted from inattention to the difference between this singular and that plural. […] Van Dusen’s book deftly applies its broad intellectual scope and erudite sense for detail to a refined – yet undoubtedly central – section of Augustine’s oeuvre. While some of its bolder claims may yet require further attention, the originality of the interpretation on offer here demands that we take it seriously.” – Sean Hannan, University of Chicago, Louvain Studies 38 (2014)
“[A] highly erudite and enthusiastically written account … Although Lucretian influence has been observed in Augustine before, its extent and depth in Confessions have never been studied in this intensity … Augustine takes the material constitution of reality much more seriously than, for example, Neoplatonists of a more Alexandrian persuasion. Van Dusen has clearly demonstrated this for the concept of time in Confessions. … [A] fine new study on Augustine’s concept of time in Confessions, which should be heeded by all who take an interest in the philosophical study of time.” – Josef Lössl, Cardiff University, The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 9 (Oct. 2015)
"Van Dusen examines subjectivist and objectivist accounts of Augustine's concept of time, proposing in their place a novel reading of Confessions X to XII. His comprehensive analysis - lucid and stimulating - advances our understanding of Augustine's views on time, temporality and memory." Gerard O'Daly, Emeritus Professor of Latin, University College London
"David van Dusen uses philosophical “outsider” perspectives on Augustine as point of departure for a complex, philologically cautious and profoundly contextualized reading of the Confessions that is of high originality. This new reading also opens onto recent re-appraisals of Augustine’s anything but “dualistic and disembodied” theological anthropology." Johannes Hoff, Professor of Systematic Theology, Heythrop College, University of London
"David van Dusen's book The Space of Time continues a new approach by philosophers, such as Lyotard, to read Augustine philosophically. Van Dusen enacts a detailed and masterly reading of the seminal sections of the Confessions on time and temporality. It is through such a reading that we realize the debt that Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger and others have towards Augustine." James Luchte, Senior Lecturer of Philosophy, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David
“A ‘post-phenomenological’ reading of Augustine on time, The Space of Time … argues through close engagement with the Latin text that, when Augustine says that time is distentio animi, he means that it is a ‘dilation’ not of the mind, but of one’s sensory experience.” – George Boys-Stones, Durham University, Phronesis. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy 60.4 (Sept. 2015)
“David van Dusen has been able to offer up an inventive reading of Augustine on time […] Most striking is his distinction between time (tempus) and times (tempora). Much of the confusion surrounding Augustine’s account of time has resulted from inattention to the difference between this singular and that plural. […] Van Dusen’s book deftly applies its broad intellectual scope and erudite sense for detail to a refined – yet undoubtedly central – section of Augustine’s oeuvre. While some of its bolder claims may yet require further attention, the originality of the interpretation on offer here demands that we take it seriously.” – Sean Hannan, University of Chicago, Louvain Studies 38 (2014)
“[A] highly erudite and enthusiastically written account … Although Lucretian influence has been observed in Augustine before, its extent and depth in Confessions have never been studied in this intensity … Augustine takes the material constitution of reality much more seriously than, for example, Neoplatonists of a more Alexandrian persuasion. Van Dusen has clearly demonstrated this for the concept of time in Confessions. … [A] fine new study on Augustine’s concept of time in Confessions, which should be heeded by all who take an interest in the philosophical study of time.” – Josef Lössl, Cardiff University, The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 9 (Oct. 2015)
David van Dusen, M.Phil. (Trinity Saint David), M.Phil. (Leuven), is a doctoral fellow of the De Wulf-Mansion Centre at the University of Leuven, and a former visiting research fellow of the Augustinianum in Rome.