Was ist Zeit?

The eleventh book of the Confessions introduces the fundamental difficulties surrounding the question of the being of time and is thus still of systematic interest. It also leads into a central question in Augustine's thought. Augustine (354-430) captured the attention of philosophers with his investigation into what time is, exerting a significant influence on their thoughts regarding the being and meaning of time and the temporal. Notably, the protagonists of the phenomenological school, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, have engaged intensively with this text. However, the lively interest in the topic and the reasoning of this book has not been confined to academic boundaries but can also be found among researchers who have sought answers to the physical questions regarding the being of time. Augustine's reflection on the essence of time is found in the eleventh of thirteen books of his Confessions, a famous yet still puzzling work that he wrote during his early years as a bishop (396-400). The eleventh book, which addresses the question of time, plays a key role as it also represents a reflection on the overall project of the Confessions. Augustine thinks remarkably independently: even though he draws on motifs from Platonic, Aristotelian, and Neoplatonic philosophy, he gives them a new face and points ahead with the vibrant force of original thinking to transcendental philosophical and phenomenological motifs.