Alexander of Aphrodisias's Account of Universals and Its Problems

This paper explores Alexander of Aphrodisias' account of universals which offers a significant contribution to the problem of universals. I argue that Alexander is the first post-Aristotelian philosopher who explicitly defends a distinction between what it is to be a form and what it is to be a universal. This distinction is clear if we consider that when there is only one particular in existence, then, although there is no ground for universal predication, the particular still has its form or nature. I show that this distinction invokes two fundamental problems, viz., the problem about the ontological status of the form, and that of the universal. In the last part of the paper, I examine Boethius' solution to the problem of universals, which he claims to take from Alexander and which clarifies some problematic aspects of Alexander's account.