Abstract

Starting from dictionary sources, it is shown how the concept of manipulation evolves from manual dexterity towards the concept of cunning (mêtis) that is exercised above all on an interhuman level, by means of communication. This is the object of rhetoric, which has been reproached as dishonest. Even in semiotics, manipulation is not necessarily negative: it is that doing that constitutes the object of value and thus provides the motivation for the subject’s action. This implies that it is always present in human events and their narrative and that the “abusiveµ dimension attributed to it concerns only a few important cases precisely because of their exceptional character.