Fiducia e argomentazione. Una prospettiva aristotelica

Talis pater, talis filius: the role of discursive strategies, thematic narratives and ideology in Cosa Nostra

The discursive analysis of criminal organizations’ family dynamics and ideological devices may provide important insights into the inner functioning of these groups. In this article, we describe and analyze a specific set of discursive strategies and the thematic narratives emerging from a TV interview with Giuseppe Riina, a member of Cosa Nostra and the son of one of the most important mafia bosses. Our analyses demonstrate the existence of recurring ideological devices such as reductionism, amoralism, familism, verticalism, normalism, victimism and religious relativism. The results are discussed in light of previous research that examines how discursive strategies and narratives may repre…

Retorica e disaccordo. Intervista con Emmanuelle Danblon

Il ruolo degli aspetti linguistici nell’identità di Cosa Nostra

Congetture e approssimazioni. Forme del sapere in Aristotele

Si chiedeva Carlo Ginzburg in un celebre saggio della fine degli anni settanta: “Può un paradigma indiziario essere rigoroso?”. Questo libro tenta di dare una risposta a questa domanda a partire da un’analisi dei testi aristotelici. In particolare cerca di mettere a fuoco una nozione centrale ma ancora poco tematizzata nelle opere di Aristotele, il per lo più, la modalità del contingente che è regolare e al tempo stesso variabile, e che caratterizza la maggior parte delle realtà con cui viene a contatto l’essere umano. Di fronte a ciò che è per lo più, la forma di conoscenza più adeguata è la congettura, che si presenta come una modalità conoscitiva rigorosa, seppur fallibile, proprio perch…

The words of conjecture. Semiotics and epistemology in ancient medicine and rhetoric

This article considers the epistemology of Classical rhetoric and Hippocratic medicine, focusing on two key terms: semeion and tekmerion. Through an analysis of the specific case of ancient Greek medicine and rhetoric, we hope to bring out the conjectural and fallible nature of human knowledge. The paper focuses on the epistemological and methodological affinity between these two ancient technai, and considers the medical uses of semeion and tekmerion in the light of their meaning in the rhetorical sphere. Chronologically, the analysis follows an inverse pathway: it starts from Aristotle and from Rhetorica ad Alexandrum, and then moves on to Antiphon’s texts (chosen as an exemplary case) an…

L'incertezza della verità.

Le retoriche della concordia

L'uso dell'espressione “Les rhétoriques de la concorde”, è la conseguenza di una scelta ben precisa: attribuire una funzione politica al genere epidittico. A questa scelta si possono opporre delle critiche legittime, tenuto conto che le fonti antiche presentano i discorsi epidittici come discorsi di circostanza che ruotano attorno alle nozioni di elogio e di biasimo. L’idea di una funzione politica del genere epidittico si fonda su un’interpretazione inizialmente proposta da Perelman e Olbrechts-Tyteca. A partire da questo - e alla luce dei contributi che la curatela raccoglie - gli autori ragionano sul nesso inscindibile epidittico/politica. The expression "Les rhétoriques de la concorde",…

La mimetizzazione mafiosa

Mafia, langage, identité

Mafia, linguaggio, identità

LE DIMOSTRAZIONI DEL RETORE. LO STATUTO EPISTEMOLOGICO DELLA RETORICA ARISTOTELICA

Regularity and exception. Some remarks on eikos in Corpus Hippocraticum

Pratiche linguistiche e costruzioni identitarie in Cosa Nostra

L'articolo analizza il ruolo che la prassi linguistica svolge all'interno di Cosa Nostra, in particolare la relazione che si instaura tra i processi di identificazione e l'uso del linguaggio: in che modo le scelte linguistiche contribuiscono a formare il senso di appartenenza al gruppo Cosa Nostra? E, simmetricamente, come tali scelte concorrono alla costruzione di un modello identitario di riferimento?

Techne e tyche in Aristotele. Una strana relazione

Populism and Immigration: (Re)Inventing Identities Through Language

Populism is one of the hottest topics of the moment and immigration is a fundamental lens for understanding its success, although not the only one. Starting from this assumption, this chapter aims to specify how language can be used as a strategic resource to empower populist platforms. The analysis contributes to the existing analysis by clarifying that language is intrinsically evaluative: the choice of the use of words and the linguistic strategies implemented by any political actor cannot be seen as neutral. Hence, we argue that (radical right) populists do not make a pathological use of language per se. The populist linguistic strategies belong to a physiological dimension, in the sens…

Metodo e criterio dell’inferenza semiotica nel De signis di Filodemo

Ricchezza e fallibilità dell'uomo retorico

What epistemological status for technai stochastikai? Plato and Aristotle on conjectural knowledge

Entre théorie et pratique. Aristote et le strabisme de la techne

The Aristotelian reflection on the epistemological status of techne, and more specifically on the definition of rhetoric as a techne, can help us to rethink the very actual cleavage between theory and practice. A good techne, as the rhetoric has to be according to Aristotle, has not to choose between theory and practice, between the universal and the particular, but should be able to look simultaneously in both directions and to keep them together. We will try to show that may be worth to rediscover and to introduce the Aristotelian notion of techne into the contemporary epistemological and philosophical debate.

The uncertainty of medicine: Galen on the notion of techne stochastike

In this article we try to show the Galen’s perspective on the epistemological status of medicine, in particular starting from the conceptual category of τέχνη στοχαστική. Even though the qualification of τέχνη στοχαστική attributed to medicine does not have an explicitly negative connotation in Galen’s Corpus, it does occupy a subordinate position compared with the solidity furnished by the more geometrico method, and is almost a necessary evil that Galen introduces to justify that fallibility of medicine, which at the same time he himself tries in every way to minimize.

Stochastic Knowledge: For the Most Part and Conjecture in Aristotle

The rhetorician vs. the mathematician. Some remarks on ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ in Aristotle

A partire da alcuni passi delle opere aristoteliche nell'articolo ci proponiamo di indagare lo specifico statuto epistemologico della retorica.

Recensione a Political Aspects of Greek Tragedy, di Jaroslav Daneš

Seeing the similar in the dissimilar. The semiotics of Philodemus’s De signis

Retorica e post-verità: una tesi controcorrente

Fin da quando è balzato agli onori della cronaca ed ha suscitato l’interesse degli studiosi , il fenomeno della post-verità ha ricevuto due principali interpretazioni. Alcuni hanno osservato che in esso non c’è nulla di realmente nuovo; altri, al contrario, hanno sottolineato la stretta relazione tra postmodernismo e post-verità. Come è stato di recente sostenuto da Lee McIntyre (2018: 11): «If one looks at the Oxford definition, and how all of this has played out in recent public debate, one gets the sense that post-truth is not so much a claim that truth does not exist as that facts are subordinate to our political point of view» (2018: 11, corsivo originale). Partendo da questa specifica…

LE VERITÀ REGOLARI. L’EIKOS NELLA MEDICINA IPPOCRATICA

L'età ellenistica

Nel presente capitolo si analizzano le teorie linguistiche delle tre principali scuole filosofiche di età ellenistica: Epicurea, Stoica e Scettica. In this chapter we analyze the linguistic theories of the three main philosophical schools of the Hellenistic age: Epicurean, Stoic and Skeptic.

DIAGNOSIS IN CORPUS HIPPOCRATICUM: (ALSO) A QUESTION OF TRUST

In this article we will begin by giving a general overview of diagnosis in Corpus Hippocraticum, by analyzing its epistemological structure. We will then focus on the following three strictly connected questions: - What is the role of the narrative dimension, and in particular the relationship between semeia and logoi, in diagnostic process? - What role does trust (pistis) play - in different ways - in the diagnostic process in the triadic relation of doctor-patient-disease? - Is there a relationship between the role of trust and the epistemological status of medical diagnosis?

Building Consensus. An introduction to a rhetorical approach

The contemporary debate on democracy shows two points of view: the “deliberative” one and the “agonistic” one. The first one is related to the classical tradition that considers Habermas as its reference point. It emphasizes the role of rational deliberation as a means to produce a legitimate and binding consensus. In contrast, the second one draws its inspiration from C. Schmitt, and considers conflict and disagreement as unavoidable conditions of democratic life. Despite their obvious differences, these two theoretical models have a conception of rhetoric in common that is subjected to, or at least excluded from, the full exercise of argumentative rationality. We propose an interpretation…

In nomine patris: Discursive strategies and ideology in the Cosa Nostra family discourse

Abstract The article investigates how Cosa Nostra family discourse is characterized by a series of discursive strategies that give shape to specific ideological structures. By analysing a TV interview to the son of Bernardo Provenzano, boss of Cosa Nostra, it is possible to understand how the criminal values and practices are maintained and reproduced within the father–son relationship. Specifically, we show how the son justifies, legitimises or denies the criminal actions of his father. The ideology of Cosa Nostra seems to be based on the inter-generational cultural continuity of its members, on the family as main locus of adherence, reductionism of its mediatic image, amoralism as father–…

Foreword

Penser la précarité avec Aristote

Cet article montre qu’il existe chez Aristote une véritable épistémologie de la précarité fondée sur l’incertitude du processus de connaissance et de prise de décision qui se déploie dans le monde des hommes. Lequel est complexe et flou. À cet égard, la théorie de la connaissance formulée par Aristote refuse d’effacer ou de nier la spécificité de l’être humain. Au contraire, elle s’efforce de bâtir un modèle épistémologique taillé à la mesure de celui-ci et en prise sur son caractère concret, « réel ».

L'uomo retorico. Cultura, ragione, azione

La retorica che cura. Per un approccio retorico alla psicoanalisi

The aim of this article is to look at talking cure as a typically rhetorical action. We refer in particular to the word’s ability to relieve pain or even heal, a capacity already recognized in Greek thought, where the comparison of word and pharmakon was widespread. We intend to use the case of the healing word as an emblematic example of the continuity between natural dimension and institutional-cultural dimension. We believe that an investigation aiming to bring these aspects together can find a fruitful reference point in ancient Greek culture. The main advantage lies in our opinion in the fact that a series of dualisms, now so ingrained in modern culture as to be difficult to get over, …

Un caso limite di persuasione. Strategie argomentative in Metafisica Gamma

A partire dall’analisi del IV libro della Metafisica di Aristotele, l’articolo si propone di fornire alcuni spunti di riflessione sul funzionamento dei processi persuasivi nella prospettiva aristotelica. La difesa del principio di non contraddizione, infatti, si presenta come un caso di studio estremamente interessante per chi voglia studiare da una parte la relazione tra persuasione, evidenza e dimostrazione e, dall’altra, più in generale, il ruolo della persuasione nell’antropologia aristotelica.