Time is measured within consciousness, not in the world itself.

 A

Bullet gist (Augustine, Confessions Book XI – Time):

• We are always in the present; the past no longer exists, the future does not yet exist.

• Yet we clearly experience duration and compare lengths of time.

• This creates a paradox: how can we measure time if only an instantaneous present exists?

• Augustine rejects time as a fully external, objective thing.

• Past and future exist only as modes of the mind:

  • Past = memory

  • Future = expectation

  • Present = attention

• Time is measured within consciousness, not in the world itself.

• What we call “time” is the stretching (distensio) of the mind across memory, attention, and expectation.

Tagline / quote:

“Time is not outside us; it is the present tension of the mind between memory and expectation.”

Ultra-short gist (one line):

• Time exists as a mental extension of the present, not as an independent external thing.