Reveals monstrosity to be a central conceptual challenge in every ancient Greek and Roman philosophical system
Reconstructs
the concept of monstrosity in classic thought from its earliest
beginnings, through pre-Platonic and Attic philosophy to the Hellenistic
systems and finally arriving at Neapolitanism
Covers all the major figures: from Hesiod to Augustine, through Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and Lucretius
Addresses questions of time, causality, necessity, finality, order, justice and anomaly
Shows the diverse aspects of reflections on monstrosity and the problems related to its interpretation
Amazons
and giants, snakes and gorgons, centaurs and gryphons: monsters
abounded in ancient culture. They raise enduring philosophical
questions: about chaos and order; about divinity and perversion; about
meaning and purpose; about the hierarchy of nature or its absence. Del
Lucchese grapples with the concept of monstrosity, showing how ancient
philosophers explored metaphysics, ontology, theology and politics to
respond to the challenge of radical otherness in nature and in thought.
Each
chapter explores the emergence of monstrosity in a set of authors and
theories. In chapter 1, monsters rise as the challenging adversaries of
the new gods of the early cosmogonies. But they can also be powerful
productive forces that support building the new order or ambiguous
characters that catalyse the unfolding of the tragic universe. In
chapter 2, the Pre-Platonic systems of Anaxagoras, Empedocle and
Democritus pave the way for the recognition of the philosophical status
of monstrosity.
This status becomes central in Attic philosophy,
first with Plato’s mythological monstrosities and then with the
construction of a hierarchical structure of the universe – taken up in
chapter 3. Chapter 4 focuses on Aristotle’s study of physical
monstrosity and its role within his metaphysical and aetiological
framework.
Chapters 5–7 deal with the extraordinarily elaborate
responses to Attic philosophy by the major Hellenistic systems:
Epicureanism, Stoicism and Scepticism. The final chapter looks at the
Middle and Neoplatonist response to Hellenism and explores the richness
of late-antiquity’s reflection on monstrosity up to its absorption and
reworking by early Christian thought.
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