alexandrist means A member of the group of Renaissance philosophers who revived the naturalistic psychology of the ancient Greek commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias; they debated orthodox Catholic views and Averroists by arguing that the individual human soul and its rational intellect is entirely mortal and perishes with the physical body.
Why “alexandrist” is a great word
A follower of the Renaissance philosophical school that revived the doctrines of Alexander of Aphrodisias, affirming the mortality of the individual human soul. From the name Alexander (after Alexander of Aphrodisias) + the suffix -ist (denoting an adherent of a doctrine). Unlike an Averroist, who believes in a single, eternal, and shared intellect for all humanity, or a Thomist, who asserts the orthodox immortality of the individual soul, an Alexandrist contends for a personal intellect that blooms and expires with its particular body. It is the candle that gutters rather than passes its flame to a universal torch; the weight of a leather-bound manuscript cooling in the hands at dusk; the quiet dread of a dying scholar who believes his thoughts will dissolve like breath in winter air—the radical acceptance of a solitude so complete it ends not with a chorus, but with an individual silence.
Etymology
From Alexander + -ist, after Alexander of Aphrodisias.
noun
- A member of the group of Renaissance philosophers who revived the naturalistic psychology of the ancient Greek commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias; they debated orthodox Catholic views and Averroists by arguing that the individual human soul and its rational intellect is entirely mortal and perishes with the physical body.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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