Melissus’s So-called Refutation of Mixture

Abstract

Abstract There is discussion among critics about the authenticity of Pseudo-Aristotle’s account on Melissus in the De Melisso, Xenophane, Gorgia, and especially about the refutation of mixture that he attributes to the latter. For there is no clue in the other testimonies and in the fragments that the Eleatic made such a refutation. In this article, I aim to show that the argument as it is presented is not genuinely Melissean, but inspired by some of Aristotle’s considerations on colour-mixture in the De sensu. I then claim that taking this source into account solves many of the difficulties inherent to this demonstration against mixture, and reveals something on Pseudo-Aristotle’s doxographical approach.