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'Alexander of Aphrodisias', a pupil of Aristocles of Messene, was the most celebrated of the Greek commentators on the writings of Aristotle. He was styled, by way of pre-eminence, ''o exegetes'' ("the expositor"). He was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria.
He came to Athens towards the end of the second century, became head of the Lyceum and lectured on peripatetic philosophy.
The object of his work was to free the doctrine from the syncretism of Ammonius and to reproduce the pure doctrine of Aristotle.
Commentaries by Alexander on the following works of Aristotle are still extant:

★ the ''Analytica Priora'', i

★ the ''Topica''

★ the ''Meteorologica''

★ the ''De Sensu''

★ the ''Metaphysica'', i-v, together with an abridgment of what he wrote on the remaining books of the ''Metaphysica''.
His commentaries were greatly esteemed among the Arabs, who translated many of them.
Alexander's band, an optical phenomenon, is named after him.
There are also several original writings by Alexander still extant.
The most important of these are a work ''On Fate'', in which he argues against the Stoic doctrine of necessity; and one ''On the Soul'', in which he contends that the undeveloped reason in man is material (''nous ulikos'') and inseparable from the body.
He argued strongly against the doctrine of immortality.
He identified the active intellect (''nous poietikos''), through whose agency the potential intellect in man becomes actual, with God.
Several of Alexander's works were published in the Aldine edition of Aristotle, Venice, 1495-1498; his ''De Fato'' and ''De Anima'' were printed along with the works of Themistius at Venice (1534); the former work, which has been translated into Latin by Grotius and also
by Schulthess, was edited by J. C. Orelli, Zürich, 1824; and his commentaries on the Metaphysica by H. Bonitz, Berlin, 1847. J. Nourisson has treated of his doctrine of fate (''De la liberte et du hazard'', Paris, 1870).
In the early Renaissance his doctrine of the soul's mortality was adopted by Pietro Pomponazzi (against the Thomists and the Averroists), and by his successor Cesare Cremonini.
In 2007 words found in a thirteenth Century copy of a prayer book, the Archimedes Palimpsest, written by a scribe called John Myronas were attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias. [1]

Contents

External links

References

Further reading

External links

★ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry

★ Online Greek texts: ''Scripta minora'', ed. Bruns; ''Commentary on Aristotle's Sense and Sensibilia'', ed. Wendland

References

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Further reading

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★ See also Alexandrists, Pietro Pomonazzi. Also A. Apelt, ''Die Schrift d. Alex. v. Aphr.'', Philolegus, xlv., 1886: C. Ruelle, ''Alex. d'Aphr. et le pretendu Alex. d'Alexandrie,'' ''Rev. des etudes grecques'', v., 1892; E. Zeller's ''Outlines of Gk. Phil.'' (Eng. trans., ed. 1905, p. 296).