Richard Rufus's theory of mixture: a medieval explanation of chemical combination.
Richard Rufus of Cornwall offered a novel solution to the problem of mixture raised by Aristotle. The puzzle is that mixts or mixed bodies (blood, flesh, wood, etc.) seem to be unexplainable through logic, even though the world is full of them. Rufus's contribution to this long-standing theoretical debate is the development of a modal interpretation of certain Averroistic doctrines. Rufus's account, which posits that the elemental forms in a mixt are in accidental potential, avoids many of the problems that plagued non-atomistic medieval theories of mixture. This paper is an initial examination of Rufus' account.
Weisberg
Michael
M
Department of Philosophy, Stanford University, California 94305-2155, USA. mweisberg@csli.stanford.edu
Wood
Rega
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