Monstrosity and Philosophy

Filippo Del Lucchese is Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Bologna and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg. His research interests are in the early modern period and the history of political thought and Marxism. He has been a Marie Curie fellow and holds degrees from the universities of Pisa and Paris IV (Sorbonne). He is the author of Conflict, Power and Multitude in Machiavelli and Spinoza (Continuum, 2009), The Political Philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli (EUP, 2015), and Monstrosity and Philosophy: Radical Otherness in Greek and Latin Culture (EUP, 2019). He has published articles in journals such as History of Political Thought, European Journal of Political Theory, Dialogue, International Studies in Philosophy, and Differences. He has taught in France, Lebanon, the United States and in the UK.

A real masterpiece for all those who intend to understand the wide range of philosophical approaches to defining the Monstrous, Otherness and Evil in the classical world. The text is well written and clearly organised to allow readers to follow the exposition of the author. Multidisciplinary scholars can benefit from Monstrosity and Philosophy; literary critics, classicists, philosophers, and scholars in religious studies can appreciate the diversity of the scholarship and the author’s superb grasp of the subject matter.

• Introduction1. The Myth and the Logos1.1 Order and Chaos1.2 Mythical Battlefields: Monstrosity as a Weapon1.3 Causality and Monstrosity: Challenging Zeus2. The Pre-Platonic philosophers2.1 Anaxagoras: A Material Origin for Life and Monstrosity2.2 Empedocles: Wonders to Behold2.3 Democritus: Agonism within Matter3. Plato4. Aristotle5. Epicurus and Lucretius5.1 An Immanent Causality for an Infinite Universe5.2 Zoogony, Monstrosity, and Nature’s Normativity5.3 Concourses of Nature5.4 Lucretius’s Impact on the Augustan Age6. Stoicism6.1 Nominalism6.2 Good and Evil, Beauty and Ugliness6.3 Providence, God and Teleology7. Scepticism7.1 The Tropes and the Critique of Essentialism7.2 To What Purpose?8. Middle and Neoplatonism8.1 The Material World and the Rediscovery of Transcendence8.2 Demons8.3 The World OrderBibliographyIndex LocorumIndex VerborumIndex RerumIndex Nominum