PARADOXICAL OPINIONS ON MIXTURE IN ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS, <i>DE MIXTIONE</i>

Abstract In a problematic passage at the beginning of his treatise De mixtione (I, 1.9–16), Alexander of Aphrodisias judges Chrysippus’ theory of total blending to be more paradoxical than two other paradoxical claims on mixture. Scholars understand these two claims either as a unitary position or as two distinct positions. In the latter case, they maintain that an emendation is necessary to make sense of the first claim. Through textual and philosophical analysis, this article shows that the claims represent two distinct positions—the realist view and Democritus’ reductionist account—and that no emendation is necessary. The article defends the transmitted text by explaining how Alexander can characterize the realist view as paradoxical despite endorsing it himself. To do so, it illustrates the meaning of ‘paradoxical’ in light of Alexander’s use of common notions ( koinai ennoiai ) as evaluative criteria and thoroughly connects the passage to the wider dialectical framework of the De mixtione , thus reconstructing the rationale behind Alexander’s evaluation of each of these three positions as paradoxical.