An interpretation of the preface to Medical Puzzles and Natural Problems 1 by Pseudo-Alexander of Aphrodisias in light of medical education *

Among the writings of Alexander of Aphrodisias, the famous commentator on Aristotle, there is a collection of Medical Puzzles and Natural Problems, which is generally considered spurious today. This chapter argues that the preface is of great importance for interpreting the scientific method and purpose of such problems and also for analysing the discursive relation between author and reader, a relation that is firmly rooted in a medical school setting. Pseudo-Alexander's collection was first edited by Julius Ludwig Ideler in 1841 in the first volume of his Physici et Medici Graeci Minores, but the text is in dire need of a proper critical edition meeting the standards of modern scholarship. Rather than analysing the parallels between the Aristotelian Problems and those attributed to Alexander, the chapter intends to shed light on the usability of such problems in an educational context.