Color-Infinity in Aristotle, Avicenna, and Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī

Aristotle is typically interpreted as a strict finitist who universally rejects actual infinity. Consequently, it is often assumed that he views the variety of colors as finite. This paper challenges this generalization. First, I argue that the infinity of color variety is not reducible to mathematical infinity. While Aristotle explicitly limits the number of color species, I demonstrate that he does not categorically rule out an infinite variety of colors. Second, I examine how Avicenna (d. 1037) and Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274) explicitly acknowledge this infinity. Echoing pseudo-Aristotle’s De coloribus, they grounded the infinity of colors in the infinity of mixtures. As Avicenna claims, the ways of mixing colors are infinite in the mind and can be realized by nature. Thus, beyond the stipulated finitude of species, the Aristotelian tradition, at least in the case of Avicenna, contains a clear argument for the infinity of color variety.