Alessandro di Afrodisia e la generazione della forma nella materia

A well-known problem of Aristotelian hylomorphism is the following: if the living being is a compound of matter and form, and its development is identified with the realisation of its form, which is also the end of its development, when does the form appear? Is it present at the beginning of the living being development, or does it appear only when it is fully realised? Alexander reflected on the issue. Some relevant texts were discussed twenty years ago by two eminent Italian scholars, Paolo Accattino and Carlo Natali, who came to diametrically opposed conclusions: for Accattino, Alessandro does not support the generation of the form, but rather an instantaneous presence of the form at the end of the development of the living being; for Natali, on the other hand, the form appears at the beginning of the development of the living being, working as an efficient cause. The aim of this article is to re-examine the texts in which Alessandro speaks of the “generation of the form”, to see whether a new interpretation is possible or whether one should adopt one of the two scholars’ positions