Abstract

Aristotle's Physics 218b21-219a has been interpreted as proof that the concept of time is determined by the perceptive (or perceptual) conditions of the mind (psyche). In this paper I will criticize such an interpretation in order to argue that the mind's conditions for the perception and experience of time are just a starting point for the investigation: what is prior and nearer to sense, and better known to man (Anal. Post. I, 2). The arrival point of Aristotle's investigation about the concept of time, it's first nature or what is prior in the order of being, is the necessary connection between the existence of time and change. His description of the sleeping Sardinians allows him to determine the elements involved in the perception of time and, consequently, to determine the elements that make up the existence of time.