Alexander of Aphrodisias on Peripatetic Domestic Life

Alexander of Aphrodisias was a Greek philosopher who lived and worked in the late second and early third centuries CE. He originated from the city of Aphrodisias in Asia Minor but moved to Athens, where he held the state-funded chair in Peripatetic philosophy. This appointment is dated to between 198 and 209 CE. He is best known as the most important ancient commentator on the works of Aristotle, earning him the epithet "the commentator."

His extensive writings include detailed commentaries on Aristotle's Prior Analytics, Topics, Meteorology, and Metaphysics, among other texts. He also authored independent philosophical treatises. Key surviving works include On Fate, his treatise on heimarmenē and what depends on us, directed against the Stoic teaching that all things come about by necessity, and On the Soul, which explores Aristotle's account of psychē and nous. Some works traditionally attributed to him are considered spurious.

Alexander of Aphrodisias shaped the history of philosophy by reviving and systematizing Aristotelian thought while actively defending it against rival schools like Stoicism. His interpretations became the standard authority for later Greek, Arabic, and medieval Latin philosophers. His arguments concerning heimarmenē, psychē, and nous remained widely debated for centuries after his death.