The Identification of Wisdom with the Science of Being as Being: Unity and Universality of Aristotle’s Metaphysics According to Alexander of Aphrodisias

Abstract

The entire ancient and late antique commentary tradition tends to read Aristotle’s Metaphysics as a unitary work. According to this reading, one and the same science is developed, culminating in book Λ, containing the famous doctrine of the unmoved mover. The systematic intent of the reading of the Metaphysics, which extends to the entire corpus aristotelicum, begins with Aristotle’s greatest ancient commentator, Alexander of Aphrodisias. Through an analysis of key passages in Alexander’s commentary on books Α and Γ of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, this paper aims to show that the thesis according to which the exegete considered wisdom and science of being as being to be independent is not in fact borne out in Alexander’s texts. The connection between the books Α and Γ is shown by Alexander through the identification of wisdom with the science of being as being. This, in turn, constitutes the fundamental step for the demonstration of the existence of the science of being as being, which, according to Alexander, is initially only assumed by Aristotle.