Words in history

Publish date 04-08-2021

by Renato Bonomo

History is knowledge that has a specific approach to understanding reality: it studies it considering its becoming in space and time. For this reason we have the history of man, the history of mathematics, the history of science. We can also know the history of words; they too undergo changes, in fact over time the same combination of letters can take on very different meanings.
Much then depends on the cultural, political and social context in which they are pronounced and written. Here is the extreme caution in handling words, especially when we are confronted with areas that are very different from ours.

Let's try to think about some examples: let's take the term peace. In the history of Rome, the term "pax" has often meant the submission of peoples to Roman rule. For the Latins "peace" meant "pacification" that is the definitive subjugation of the enemies finally rendered harmless. In a famous passage, Tacitus put into the mouth of the Caledonian general Calgaco the affirmation that the Romans called peace what they had made a desert.
Speech consistent with the mentality of the time for which peace was being prepared with the war that should have silenced the enemies.

Another word that has had a very troubled history is "justice". On the subject, the lesson of Plato in his Letter VII in which the philosopher denounced the great confusion that struck the Athenians of his time still remains unsurpassed.
When his fellow citizens, condemning Socrates, the most just man of all, were convinced that they had done "justice" and instead had blatantly mistaken injustice for justice. When the confusion between good and evil progresses, we are capable of the most heinous crimes, Hannah Arendt reminds us in her Banality of Evil.

Discovering the different meanings attributed to words over time does not mean falling into relativism for which everything is worth (or, better, is worth nothing). It means discovering how men, in every age, have posed the problem of defining these values ​​because they have suffered unjust actions, have suffered and suffered, have dreamed of a better world. Perhaps this can be an effective perspective to seek the meaning of the fundamental values ​​that allow us to live together, without falling into contradictions.
Try starting not from big theoretical problems (what is justice?) But from small daily episodes of injustice, discrimination that even children know how to recognize.
Precisely by treating small injustices, we will be able to build more just societies.


Renato Bonomo
NP April 2021

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