On Time and Imagination

This volume makes available in English an invaluable source for medieval ideas on deep questions that will be familiar to present-day students of philosophy. The British philosopher-theologian Robert Kilwardby wrote "On Time" and "On Imagination" in Oxford in the 1250s. "On Time" discusses whether time is independent of mind, investigates the nature of the unity of time, and asks whether there is an analogue of time in the life of pure spirits. "On Imagination" examines the nature of imagination, and its relations to sensation and desire, and ends with a lengthy section on the roles of head and heart in the exercise of common sense. In both treatises, Kilwardby struggles to reconcile the views of Aristotle and Augustine.