ABSTRACT
Aim and subject. This piece argues that the philosophical bedrock of conventional social science, including political economy, is a collection of over-aestheticized platitudes (viz., “the great books of the West”), whose common thread is, for the most part, a utilitarian and tritely moralistic appreciation of the human condition and human behaviour in general. In the search for an alternative poetic phenomenology, it is here proposed that the fiction of Leonardo Sciascia (1921–1989) might be a more promising platform.
Method. Social scientists would be better off taking their literary cues from the Sicilian writer, whose insights on the physiology of power are here, as a result, subdivided and analyzed in the following sections: the elevation of “Sicily” to a standard categorization of modern societies; a typological description of woman and men; the facelessness of Mass-Man; the functionalism of the Mafia; society and power, Justice; fictional narrative; and theology. Conclusion. Economists are interested in the work of Leonardo Sciascia when studying the problems of the incoming criminalization of the economy and the curtailment of the state (for example, in terms of issuing money), as well as the further merging of economic elites (oligarchy) with state power (plutocracy).
Keywords: Sicily; Italy; Power; Mafia; Crime; South; Terrorism; Theodicy; Capital punishment; Literature; Theology; Psychology; Cultural studies; Sociology; History; Gender; Criminology; Democracy; Oligarchy; Conspiracy; Politics
