Alexander was a native of
Aphrodisias in
Caria (present-day
Turkey) and came to
Athens towards the end of the 2nd century. He was a student of the two
Stoic, or possibly
Peripatetic, philosophers
Sosigenes and
Herminus, and perhaps of
Aristotle of Mytilene. At Athens he became head of the
Peripatetic school and lectured on Peripatetic philosophy. Alexander's dedication of
On Fate to
Septimius Severus and
Caracalla, in gratitude for his position at Athens, indicates a date between 198 and 209. A recently published inscription from Aphrodisias confirms that he was head of one of the Schools at Athens and gives his full name as Titus Aurelius Alexander.
Commentaries ,
Aristotle and Alexander of Aphrodisias, 16th century
plaquette,
Bode-Museum Alexander composed several
commentaries on the works of Aristotle, in which he sought to escape a
syncretistic tendency and to recover the pure doctrines of Aristotle. His extant commentaries are on
Prior Analytics (Book 1),
Topics,
Meteorology,
Sense and Sensibilia, and
Metaphysics (Books 1–5). The commentary on the
Sophistical Refutations is deemed spurious, as is the commentary on the final nine books of the
Metaphysics. The lost commentaries include works on the
De Interpretatione,
Posterior Analytics,
Physics,
On the Heavens,
On Generation and Corruption,
On the Soul, and
On Memory. In April 2007, it was reported that imaging analysis had discovered an early commentary on Aristotle's
Categories in the
Archimedes Palimpsest, and
Robert Sharples suggested Alexander as the most likely author.
Original treatises There are also several extant original writings by Alexander. These include:
On the Soul,
Problems and Solutions,
Ethical Problems,
On Fate, and
On Mixture and Growth.
On Providence, and
Against Galen on Motion.
On the Soul (
De anima) is a treatise on the
soul written along the lines suggested by Aristotle in his own
De anima. Alexander contends that the undeveloped reason in man is material (
nous hylikos) and inseparable from the body. The remaining twenty pieces cover problems in
physics and
ethics, of which the largest group deals with questions of
vision and
light, and the final four with
fate and
providence.
Problems and Solutions (
Quaestiones) consists of three books which, although termed "problems and solutions of physical questions," treat of subjects which are not all physical, and are not all problems. Among the sixty-nine items in these three books, twenty-four deal with physics, seventeen with psychology, eleven with
logic and
metaphysics, and six with questions of fate and providence.
Ethical Problems was traditionally counted as the fourth book of the
Quaestiones. It is likely that the work was not written by Alexander himself, but rather by his pupils on the basis of debates involving Alexander.
On Mixture and Growth discusses the topic of
mixture of physical bodies. It is both an extended discussion (and polemic) on
Stoic physics, and an exposition of Aristotelian thought on this theme. The main purpose of this work is to give a general account of Aristotelian cosmology and metaphysics, but it also has a polemical tone, and it may be directed at rival views within the Peripatetic school. Alexander was concerned with filling the gaps of the Aristotelian system and smoothing out its inconsistencies, while also presenting a unified picture of the world, both physical and ethical. The topics dealt with are the nature of the heavenly motions and the relationship between the unchangeable celestial realm and the
sublunar world of generation and decay. In this treatise, Alexander opposes the Stoic view that
divine Providence extends to all aspects of the world; he regards this idea as unworthy of the gods. Instead, providence is a power that emanates from the heavens to the sublunar region, and is responsible for the generation and destruction of earthly things, without any direct involvement in the lives of individuals. ==Influence==