He argued strongly against the doctrine of the soul's immortality. Alexander contends that the undeveloped reason in man is material ( nous hylikos) and inseparable from the body. On the Soul ( De anima) is a treatise on the soul written along the lines suggested by Aristotle in his own De anima.
Additional works by Alexander are preserved in Arabic translation, these include: On the Principles of the Universe, On Providence, and Against Galen on Motion. Three works attributed to him are considered spurious: Medical Questions, Physical Problems, and On Fevers. These include: On the Soul, Problems and Solutions, Ethical Problems, On Fate, and On Mixture and Growth. There are also several extant original writings by Alexander. 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. Simplicius of Cilicia mentions that Alexander provided commentary on the quadrature of the lunes, and the corresponding problem of squaring the circle. 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. The commentary on the Sophistical Refutations is deemed spurious, as is the commentary on the final nine books of the Metaphysics. His extant commentaries are on Prior Analytics (Book 1), Topics, Meteorology, Sense and Sensibilia, and Metaphysics (Books 1–5). Commentaries Ĭommentaria in meteorologica Aristotelis, 1548Īlexander 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. This fact makes it plausible that some of the suspect works that form part of Alexander's corpus should be ascribed to his father. The inscription honours his father, also called Alexander and also a philosopher.
His full nomenclature shows that his grandfather or other ancestor was probably given Roman citizenship by the emperor Antoninus Pius, while proconsul of Asia.
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. 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. At Athens he became head of the Peripatetic school and lectured on Peripatetic philosophy. He was a student of the two Stoic, or possibly Peripatetic, philosophers Sosigenes and Herminus, and perhaps of Aristotle of Mytilene. Alexander was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria (present-day Turkey) and came to Athens towards the end of the 2nd century.