AL'EXAWDRISTS. Those Renaissance fol lowers of Aristotle who attached themselves with much zeal to the interpretation of Aris totle given by Alexander of Aphrodisias. They stood in bitter rivalry with the Averroists and the Thomists. The dispute concerned it self chiefly with the relation between the individual soul and the universal reason, and with the consequences of this relation for personal immortality. The Thomists. follow ing Thomas Aquinas, held that Aristotle re garded reason as belonging to the individual soul; the Alexandrists maintained that Aris totle considered the individual soul as a merely animal and mortal function, which during the earthly life alone is rationalized by the informing power of universal reason: the Aver roists held the intermediate view, viz., that the universal reason works upon the soul and makes it actual intelligence, and then incorporates this actual intelligence with its own eternal nature.
Accordingly, the Thomists believed in individual inullio•tality, the Alexandrists in no individual immortality. and the Averroists in the immor tality of what has been the individual, but has lost its individuality, to be taken up as a per manent element in the life of God. The leading Averroists were Nicoletto Vernias ((lied 1490), Alessandro Achillini (died 1518), and Agostino Nilo (1473-1546) : the leading Alexandrists were Ermolao Barbaro (1454-93) and Pietro Pomponazzi (1462-1524), the leading Aris totelian of his time; among the Thomists of the Renaissance may be mentioned Francis Suarez ( 1548-1617 ) . Consult : Ueberweg-Heinze. Gry nd riss der Gesehichtc der Philosophic (Berlin, 1804-98; English translation by Norris, New York, 1871) E. Renal', .1 eerroes et l'Averrolsme (Paris, 1852).