Abstract

The most recent enquiries into so-called “metaphysical grounding”, which seek to investigate the structure of reality in terms of the concept of non-causal priority, mark at least in part a return to an Aristotelian perspective in a seemingly anti-Quinean key. In controversy with Quine’s position, which limited the study of metaphysics to “what there is”, there has been a recent rediscovery of an Aristotelian approach that, rather than considering what there is, privileges how what there is is, investigating relationships of dependence. The article aims to identify the basic features of this “ontological recovery” of Aristotle. In particular, it tries to show that some contemporary theories on “ontological dependence” are much indebted to the version of Aristotelian ontology that Alexander of Aphrodisias contributed to elaborating and transmitting.