Alessandro di Afrodisia e la nascita della dottrina dell'analogia dell'essere

This paper contributes to the debate on the origins of the doctrine of the analogy of being. The author argues that it was Alexander of Aphrodisias who started the process that was ultimately to lead, with Thomas Aquinas, to the complete formulation of the doctrine of the analogy of being. Alexander’s decisive contribution appears to lie not in the overlap between the unity by analogy in Metaph. Δ 6 and the πρὸς ἕν of Metaph. Γ 2, as recently claimed by K.L. Flannery, but in the commentator’s having placed being as an intermediate between homonymous and synonymous. Alexander’s distinction between the three terms seems to mark a turning point in the way Aristotle’s passage has been interpreted. By going beyond Aristotle, and placing being in an intermediate position, Alexander seems to pave the way towards the doctrine of the analogia entis, grasping the feasibility of it stemming from Aristotle’s own text.