(Neo-)Aristotelianism and a puzzle about death

Abstract This paper addresses a puzzle about death in neo-Aristotelian metaphysics. We begin by outlining the explanatory requirements any solution to the puzzle must meet. Drawing from both classical Aristotelian and contemporary neo-Aristotelian traditions, we examine candidates for each of these requirements. Situating these candidates within broader neo-Aristotelian commitments, key doctrines which motivate the recent claims that neo-Aristotelianism is able to better make sense of the world than physicalism or Cartesian Dualism, we then test the proposed solutions. We show that the neo-Aristotelian faces a dilemma. Either they must leave the puzzle unsolved or endorse a solution that deflates their key doctrines. Both options, we maintain, are detrimental to the neo-Aristotelian project.