Abstract

Differing from Heidegger statements, while St. Augustine seeks for time's meaning, he does not leave the studies about time's relation to soul standing still. A concept of soul is indispensable for understanding the idea of time even when it might not be considered that the former defines the latter. Attempting to understand what time is, Augustine divides it in waiting, attention and memory. This division, different from the conventional one, is in function of the present time, because it is the only time that may exist. He also considers soul as an instrument for measuring those times and a media for them to be and to exist for men. Thus, St. Augustine finds out an unbreakable relation between soul and time, a relation on which his studies are focused at book XI of his masterpiece The Confessions.