| 
|
|
Fearless Speech
 |
Browse |
 |
|
|
by Michel Foucault
Semiotext(e)
Due/Published
September 2001, 128 pages,
paper
ISBN
1584350113
This volume gathers a series of lectures Michel Foucault gave on the Greek notion of parrhesia, or fearless speech. Parrhesia is the speech of someone who has the moral qualities required to speak the truth, even if it differs from what the majority of people believes and one faces danger for speaking it. Foreign Agents series |
|
| |
Review
Fearless Speech contains six lectures Foucault gave in English at the University of California, Berkeley in 1983. They represent part of his intense and intriguing engagement with classical philosophy, a field of inquiry that dominated his later work. In Fearless Speech Foucault examines the Greek concept of parrhesia, or truth-telling, and how it became problematized in Ancient Greek philosophy. Foucault considers truth-telling as a specific activity or function and explores how Greek philosophers responded to the issues of who is able to tell the truth, about what, with what consequences, and with what relation to power. He also discusses the importance for the individual and for the society of telling the truth, knowing the truth, having people who tell the truth, and knowing how to recognize them. As in his works on madness and sexuality, Foucault is here interested in how and why a certain concept, in this case truth-telling, became a "problem" in Ancient Greek society. Foucault's lectures offer close and insightful readings of an array of Greek philosophical and dramatic texts and are an important addition to our understanding of his thought as well as of how the notion of truth-telling informed Greek politics, philosophy, and society. For other recent titles by and about Michel Foucault For other recent titles in related subjects: |
|
