New Wine in Old Vessels: Alexander of Aphrodisias as a Source for Averroes' Metaphysics

Besides his best-known merits as a philosopher, Averroes stands out in the history of the classical tradition as a unique testimony to Alexander’s lost commentary on Metaphysics Lambda and, through it, his interpretation of the argument running through the whole text of the Metaphysics. The gist of this interpretation is laid out in the elaborate prologue to the Lambda commentary that goes back to Alexander and is preserved by Averroes. Building on this textual evidence, the study investigates Averroes’ philosophical appropriation of the Alexander material that is interwoven into the fabric of the former’s exegesis, from the earlier epitome to the later long commentary on the Metaphysics. A number of doctrines turn out to be ultimately inspired by Alexander, including Averroes’ view of the tripartite structure of metaphysics, his notion of Book Gamma as an epistemology (“specific logic”) for metaphysics, the function of Delta, and Aristotle’s argument in Zeta. Averroes’ debt to his source is brought to the fore without prejudicing the further question, awaiting future research, of whether Averroes’ acquaintance with Alexander’s line of interpretation was always unmediated or any figures in the philosophical tradition played some role in its transmission.