Time, Creation and the Continuum: Theories in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

by Richard Sorabji

Richard Sorabji here takes time as his central theme, exploring fundamental questions about its Is it real or an aspect of consciousness? Did it begin along with the universe? Can anything escape from it? Does it come in atomic chunks? In addressing these and myriad other issues, Sorabji engages in an illuminating discussion of early thought about time, ranging from Plato and Aristotle to Islamic, Christian, and Jewish medieval thinkers. Sorabji argues that the thought of these often negelected philosophers about the subject is, in many cases, more complete than that of their more recent counterparts.
“Splendid. . . . The canvas is vast, the picture animated, the painter nonpareil. . . . Sorabji’s work will encourage more adventurers to follow him to this fascinating new-found land.”—Jonathan Barnes, Times Literary Supplement

“One of the most important works in the history of metaphysics to appear in English for a considerable time. No one concerned with the problems with which it deals either as a historian of ideas or as a philosopher can afford to neglect it.”—Donald MacKinnon, Scottish Journal of Theology
 
“Unusually readable for such scholarly content, the book provides in rich and cogent terms a lively and well-balanced discussion of matters of concern to a wide academic audience.”— Choice

Genres: Philosophy

492 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Chandler Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This text was a beast to work through, and has been the focus of the majority of my evenings over the past two and a half weeks. In this class philosophical work, Sorabji seeks to explain ancient philosophical views on the 3 subjects of the title: time, creation, and the continuum. Sorabji emphasizes the value of Jewish and Christian sources for understanding ancient debates, as well as the value of Muslim scholarship for rehabilitating Aristotle in certain debates. In many ways, this book is an ode to Aristotle’s pioneering contributions to the notions of time and change, but Sorabji must work through MANY interpretations and readings of these classic sources, as well as his own translations of these classic authors’s works, in order to establish his best understanding of their original meanings. This book can be hard to follow at times as Sorabji wades through the diverse scholarship on ancient views of time, but Sorabji certainly exhibits his genius on this subject in his writing. The book is divided into 5 parts. I had a hard time getting my grip in part 1, but the highlight of the book really is parts 2-5 and Sorabji’s discussion on creation. Part 5, with Sorabji’s discussion on time atoms and Zeno’s paradox was nearly impossible to follow at times and unnecessarily drawn out without any clear articulation of the point of this section of the book. Sorabji does significantly site Origen of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Philoponus, so I was always tuned in when he cited these patristic voices. I am glad I read this book to get some kind of grip on ancient controversies over time, and the value of these ancient sources for scientific and metaphysical understandings of time today. That said, I didn’t really enjoy reading this book, and I did not like Sorabji’s dry and in-the-weeds writing style.

[Jean-françois Virey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a classic on the topic and still a recommended source for anyone interested in the three topics listed in the title, but (not being a professional philosopher) I found it a very tedious read, and it was much too disorganised and unpedagogical for my taste. It is less a coherent book than a collection of tightly focused studies on controversial issues related to the three topics. It tries to be both historical and philosophical. The historical parts mostly consist in Sorabji assessing other scholars' attempted recontructions of the positions of ancient authors, and of the arguments for these positions, often based on not altogether reliable, secondhand ancient sources. And the philosophical parts consist in his weighing the arguments themselves (insofar as sense can still be made of them) and occasionally attempting to shore them up with tweaks of his own. Most of the time, I didn't find Sorabji's own elucidations particularly luminous, nor did I find his own positions very convincing, all the more so as the attempts to connect with modern science are weak and out-of-date, and there is no consideration of the considerable light mathematics can shed on problems such as Zeno's paradoxes.
As someone who likes a book to have take-away points and a clear structure that leads to overall conclusions, I feel the time and effort I have had to put into reading the book were not rewarded enough.

[Christian Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sorabji expands across philosophical thought and Christian theology to unearth a historical understanding of time, beginning, and end. This work is an extremely helpful piece on understanding how different ways of thinking have understood the universe and it’s creation.