Il Nesso tra verità e Giustizia alle origini della retorica greca

The starting point is the reconstruction of the archaic historical-cultural framework in which is developed the research on the nature by the first philosophers of Nature (still expressed in poetic verses), that represents the first investigations about the 'truth', with an approach demythologizing the archaic perception of cosmos and nature. The notion of ontological 'truth' becomes distinct from sensitive appearances and the conceptions of justice and law are elaborated in connection to these twofold ideas. In the judiciary, in the fifth century B.C., the conscious distinction emerges between natural justice and the conventional norm; the feeling of the superiority of nature over human conventions is inherited from the archaic period, however there are also voices that glimpse and denounce the social risks inherent in the "natural" law of the strongest. The values of the idea of ‘verisimilitude’ as the foundation of rhetorical art and rhetoric as the art of ‘the persuasion’ in the judiciary, political and epidict fields are explored. Particular attention is devoted to the Aristotelian ideas of truth and justice with investigations not only in Rhetoric, but also in the writings of Ethics and in other Aristotelian works. The judicial discourse includes reflections on the Aristotelian concept of "epieikeia" which, in the light of the most recent research, does not only express the idea of equity, but also of flexibility.