Wieczność jako pełnia życia i nieskończoność aktualna w kontekście doświadczenia czasu w ujęciu Boecjusza i Tomasza z Akwinu
Eternity as the Full Life and Actual Infinity in the Context of the Experience of Time in Boethius and Thomas of Aquinas

Summary/Abstract: The article describes the concept of eternity in the context of the sense of the passage of time in terms of two medieval thinkers: Boethius and Thomas Aquinas. The aim of the article is to show eternity as the fullness of life of the absolute being and the current infinity, that is, the eternally existing present. Based on the thoughts of philosophers, it was emphasized that eternity is the all-encompassing awareness of everything that exists and the possession of everything at once. Eternity is the perfection of life in which there is no passing or experiencing a sequence of time. Both authors recognized eternity as the fullness of the nature of absolute being, which is unchanging. It was also emphasized that becoming aware of the existence of eternity takes place on the basis of experiencing temporality. Conditioned and mutable beings perceive time in a linear way, which is related to their fragmentary cognition of reality. The absolute awareness of everything, on the other hand, does not perceive temporality as the passing of moments, but embraces them all at once in one instantaneous, timeless act of cognition. In our perception of reality, time flows in one direction, which is due to the fact that we come to know fragments of reality in a certain order, which create a cause and effect sequence. However, in the consciousness of the Creator, all causes and effects are immediately existing from always at once and everything is eternally present. The absolute being as eternity always has always created with one creative act, hence it can be assumed that the world as a whole of creation also exists eternally.

• Details
• Contents