Alexander of Aphrodisias on Divine Providence: Two Problems

Abstract

The position on the question of divine providence of the Aristotelian commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. c. A.D. 200) is of particular interest. It marks an attempt to find a via media between the Epicurean denial of any divine concern for the world, on the one hand, and the Stoic view that divine providence governs it in every detail, on the other. 2 As an expression of such a middle course it finds a place in later classifications of views concerning providence. 3 It is also of topical interest: Alexander's fullest discussion, in his treatise De providentia (On Providence) (surviving only in two Arabic versions), has only recently been edited and translated, 4 although some aspects of his position had long been known from other texts preserved in Greek. 5