Melissus of Samos was a Traditional Greek Thinker who lived during the fifth century B.C.E. He followed the great Parmenides and Zeno of Elea as the last of the Eleactic convention. Generally, he agreed with his predecessors, but he starkly disagreed on the limited and timeless nature of existence.

Before we peer into his thought, we must always first evaluate the primary sources. We all know in fact , comparatively little about the last Eleactic scholar. The majority we know about his personal life derives from Plutarch’s Life of Pericles, in which source we discover he led a Samian fleet as captain in 422 B.C.E. And he later brought Pericles and the Athenian navy to destruction.

His greatest contribution to philosophy remains his treatise On Nature, massive fragments of which Simplicius saved in his commentaries on Aristotle. Although we do not have all of Simplicius ‘ work, we do have a great piece of it. Once can read Melissus ‘ work in the Dielz-Kranz, a large collection of Pre-Socratic scribblings.

Like former Eleactic philosophers, the academic commander assumed the world to be quite fraudulent. All 3 argued that the world was unified, changeless, and motionless. Nonetheless he disagreed with Parmenides on 2 points.

While Parmenides said that existence was spatially limited, Melissus countered that existence was totally unlimited, and while Parmenides thought reality existed in an ageless present, the later Eleactic suggested instead that existence is eternal. Melissus simply built on their debate by recommending for a completely unlimited existence.

The thinker stated that whatever exists must have come to be that way. Since existence to the Eleactics was fixed, existence could have never come to be; rather, it just. Therefore , existence never had a beginning and, therefore, is eternal.

Second, he justified existence’s eternality in a rather fallacious way. He poses that whatever has no beginning is neither eternal nor unlimited. Since existence has no beginning and end, it must then be eternal and unlimited.

Men of learning debate this discussion because it clearly expresses a logical fallacy, which has led some to conclude we are missing vital primary resources to fill in vital premises. No matter the lack of resources, Melissus plays a pivotal role in the history of philosophy because he made significant contributions to Eleactic scholarship and because Plato and Aristotle later relied extraordinarily heavily on his version of Eleactic Philosophy.

For more in-depth information on Presocratic Philosophers, visit the Best Philosophy Books blog. Or perhaps you may search for some great philosophy books to expand your knowledge!