ABSTRACT
So far we have looked at one side of Nietzsche’s concern with the question about infinitude and time. Turning to the other, the question of a beginning or end to time, we encounter arguments directed against an infinity of past time which have given rise to many philosophical debates: for instance, between al-Ghazali and Averroes in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, or St Bonaventure and St Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth. A similar debate occurring in the nineteenth century involved Diihring and Nietzsche; and, although they were not its only participants, their disagreement brings out the important features of the debate. In fact, it is Nietzsche’s attack on the position taken by Diihring that is most instructive for an understanding of the issues, as well as for the light it throws on his own thinking about time.
