Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture

ISBN-13: 9781474456210 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 432 str.

Filippo Del Lucchese

Opis

The concept of monstrosity in ancient philosophy and cultureTaking a continental approach to Greek and Latin culture, both pagan and early Christian, Filippo Del Lucchese covers all the major figures in ancient thought, from Hesiod to Augustine, through Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus and Lucretius, the Stoics and the Sceptics, up to the Middle Platonists, the Neoplatonists and the early Fathers.Far from being a peripheral problem, Del Lucchese shows that monstrosity is one of the main conceptual challenges for every philosophical system. He reveals how ancient philosophers explore metaphysics, ontology, theology and politics as they respond to the threats presented by the radical alterity of monstrous manifestations, both in nature and in thought.

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The Myth and the Logos; 1.1. Order and Chaos; 1.2 Mythical Battlefields: Monstrosity as a Weapon; 1.3. Causality and Monstrosity: Challenging Zeus; 2. The Pre-Platonic philosophers; 2.1. Anaxagoras: A Material Origin for Life and Monstrosity; 2.2. Empedocles: Wonders to Behold; 2.3. Democritus: Agonism within Matter; 3. Plato; 4. Aristotle; 5. Epicurus and Lucretius; 5.1. An Immanent Causality for an Infinite Universe; 5.2. Zoogony, Monstrosity, and Nature’s Normativity; 5.3. Concourses of Nature; 5.4. Lucretius’s Impact on the Augustan Age; 6. Stoicism; 6.1. Nominalism; 6.2. Good and Evil, Beauty and Ugliness; 6.3; Providence, God, and Teleology; 7. Scepticism; 7.1. The Tropes and the Critique of Essentialism; 7.2. To What Purpose? 8. Middle and Neoplatonism; 8.1 The Material World and the Rediscovery of Transcendence; 8.2. Demons; 8.3. The World Order; Bibliography; Index Locorum; Index Verborum; Index Rerum; Index Nominum.