Il Commento al primo libro della Metafisica di Alessandro di Afrodisia come fonte del trattato II 4 [12] delle Enneadi

In chapter XIV of the Life of Plotinus, Porphyry tells us that Plotinus made use of Alexander of Aphrodisias' commentaries for his lectures. The scholarly debate focused on Alexander’s influence on Plotinus’ doctrine of intelligible matter as is exposed in Ennead II 4, with particular regard to Aristotle’s conception of nous in the De Anima. The main purpose of this paper is to further analyse the usefulness of Alexander’s Commentary on the first book of Metaphysics for understanding Ennead II 4. For if it is appropriate to read Plotinus’ doctrine of intelligible matter in light of the first book of Aristotle's Metaphysics, Alexander's mediation allows us to view additional elements that remain implicit in the Aristotelian text. In particular, Alexander's Commentary will prove to be useful in understanding three points. Firstly, the implicit doxographical references in the introductory chapter of Plotinus’ treaty. Secondly, the Plotinian genesis of an interpretation of Plato that clearly distinguishes between two sorts of matter: one sensible, substratum of bodies; the other intelligible, substratum of ideas. Finally, the different type of composition of form and matter in the sensible and the intelligible, illustrated by Plotinus in the third chapter of the treaty.