Abstract

Time, place and movement are three commonly-used terms in philosophy. By no means, however, are they the simplest concepts despite being bungled by shallow philosophers.Perhaps the oldest and yet one of the most credited explanations of time belongs to Aristotle. He defines time as a real, accidental thing with a continuous quantity which can be predicated by incorporeal beings.The Aristotelian time is merely a movement of spheres which cannot have the slightest effect even on its own trend.Avicenna's explanation of time is similar to that of Aristotle's in many ways; his time is an unstable continuous quantity with "moment" being a hypothetical part of it.Suhrawardi divides quantity into stable and unstable types saying that "the thing which cannot be but renewal is time." The idea is endorsed by Mulla Sadra who like Suhrawardi believes that the quiddity of time is dependent on the issue of movement.In his Asfar, Mulla Sadra proves the existence of time with natural and philosophical reasons. He gives a comprehensive explanation of time through several principles on existence of time, quiddity of time, and God's precedence over time and movement.