Monstrosity and Philosophy

Amazons and giants, snakes and gorgons, centaurs and gryphons: monsters abounded in the ancient world. 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.

---

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.