Metadatas
1991
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Military strategy InjusticeCite this document
Maria Pia Di Bella, « Témoignage et justice : un épisode sicilien », Annales, ID : 10.3406/ahess.1991.278927
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Abstract
"Render Justice". Through the analysis of an episode hinging on testimony related by L. G. Cockburn after his trip to Sicily (1810-1811), I sustain that the use of lies made by Sicilians differs from the definition provided by the Encyclopedia Treccani (1934), according to which lying is an "empirical" fact to which "children, savages, women, the elderly, and those whose bodies or minds are sick are inclined". Lies, on the contrary, were part of coherent strategy that the "poor", in their social struggles, used against the "rich". Inasmuch as that strategy, was based on the certainty that the authorities were, in turn, lying, this strategy evolved, in time into philosophy of life.