Melissus of Samos

Melissus of Samos lived in the 5th century BC and became the third and final voice of the Eleatic school, following Parmenides and Zeno. He led the Samian fleet during the Samian War, then turned his attention to systematic philosophy. His treatise expanded on Parmenides' claims: reality is ungenerated, indestructible, indivisible, changeless, and motionless. Melissus pushed further, insisting that what exists must be wholly unlimited and infinitely extended in all directions. Since existence has no boundary, he concluded, it must also be one. The position is severe and strange — a universe wi…