Alexandrists

Alexandrists were Renaissance Aristotelian philosophers who followed Alexander of Aphrodisias, especially his interpretation of the human intellect as mortal rather than immortal.

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Alexander of Aphrodisias: A second- and third-century Greek commentator whose Aristotelian works shaped later debates about intellect and the soul. His interpretation of Aristotle supplied the school’s defining account of the intellect.
Averroism: A tradition of Aristotelian interpretation shaped by Averroes, including his account of intellect. Averroists differed over whether intellect is shared across humans or belongs to each individual.
Girolamo Cardano: An Italian Renaissance physician, mathematician, and philosopher who wrote on the soul and human cognition. His psychological writings engaged the rival Alexandrist and Averroist readings.
Council of Lateran V: An ecumenical council of the Catholic Church held from 1512 to 1517. Its 1513 decree condemned claims that the rational soul is mortal or a single intellect shared by all.
Aristotle: An ancient Greek philosopher whose writings shaped logic, metaphysics, natural science, and theories of the soul. Alexandrists claimed to recover his psychology through Alexander’s commentaries.
Pietro Pomponazzi: An Italian Renaissance philosopher known for arguing that the soul’s natural powers do not establish its immortality. His 1516 treatise made the Alexandrist position prominent in debates over the soul.
Jacopo Zabarella: An Italian Aristotelian philosopher known for works on logic, method, and natural philosophy. His Paduan Aristotelianism developed amid the interpretive divisions that included Alexandrism.
Apostolici regiminis: A 1513 decree of the Fifth Lateran Council affirming the immortality of each human soul. It directly addressed doctrines associated with Renaissance Aristotelian disputes over immortality.
De Anima: Aristotle’s treatise on the soul, its capacities, and its relation to living bodies. Its account of intellect became the central text in disputes over human immortality.
Thomism: A philosophical and theological tradition based on the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Thomists defended the immortality of each human soul against Alexandrist conclusions.