THE NATURE AND SPECIFICITY OF ALTERATION. ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS’ PHYSICS IN THE ANCIENT PERIPATETIC TRADITION
THE NATURE AND SPECIFICITY OF ALTERATION. ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS’ PHYSICS IN THE ANCIENT PERIPATETIC TRADITION

Summary/Abstract: Alteration appears to be a fundamental process within the sensible world, as it was interpreted by Aristotle and his followers. Among them, Alexander was the fi rst to assign to alteration (alloiôsis) a crucial role in his thought and to explain in detail the specificity of this type of change. In this article, I want to show how the role he assigns to this process corresponds to an important turn in the Aristotelian tradition. Though he comments on his master with meticulous precision, the Exegete never simply repeats his master’s doctrines; rather, he often presents an original synthesis between the problems originally faced by Aristotle and questions raised by later thinkers. As I will argue, his analysis of the sensible world has some significant and novel characteristics when compared with the accounts of previous thinkers. The originality of Alexander’s views on the sensible world can be seen not only in comparison with Aristotle’s analysis, but also in comparing his views with the accounts of his heirs in the “Peripatetic” tradition in a broad sense – including “official Aristotelians” (such as Theophrastus and Strato), and also “eclectic” authors of the Roman period (such as Galen and Plinius). To understand Alexander’s concept of alteration, a passage from his Commentary on Meteorologics dealing with this process in the celestial realm is analysed first. In two subsequent sections, the originality of this account are assessed by means of a comparison between Alexander’s treatment of alteration with the account proposed prior to him. Finally, the significance of this concept of alteration is clarified by suggesting which theoretical advantages this schema offers for Alexander’s theory of sensual perception and, in particular, for his account of vision as it is developed in his Commentary on the De sensu (4.). In doing so, the hypothesis is that the model of alteration developed in his Commentary on the Meteorologics can provide a key to understanding the specificity of his account of sensual perception in his Commentary on the De sensu.

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