Fearless Speech. 6 lectures given by Michel Foucault in the Fall of 1983 Contemporary Philosophy: Douglas Olena

Transcription

1 Fearless Speech 6 lectures given by Michel Foucault in the Fall of 1983 Contemporary Philosophy: Douglas Olena

2 Outline The Word Parrhesia The meaning of the word The evolution of the word

3 Outline Parrhesia in Euripides The Phoenician Woman Hippolytus The Bacchae Electra Ion Orestes Problematizing Parrhesia

4 Outline Parrhesia in the care of the self Socratic parrhesia The practice of parrhesia in human relationships in techniques of examination

5 The Meaning of the Word 11 The word parrhesia appears for the first time in Greek literature in Euripides [c B.C.], and occurs throughout the ancient Greek world of letters from the end of the Fifth Century B.C. It is also found in the patristic texts in the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. That is not all. Kittel s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament records a long tradition in the Hellenized Hebrew world, in Philo and Josephus, in the Septuagint and New Testament.

6 The Meaning of the Word 11 Parrhesia is ordinarily translated into English as free speech. The parrhesiastes is the one who uses parrhesia, i.e., the one who speaks the truth.

7 The Meaning of the Word Frankness p. 12 Truth p. 13 Danger p. 15 Criticism p. 17 Duty p. 19

8 The Meaning of the Word 12 Frankness the parrhesiastes, is someone who says everything he has in mind: he does not hide anything, but opens his heart and mind completely to other people through his discourse. The word parrhesia, then, refers to a type of relationship between the speaker and what he says.

9 The Meaning of the Word 13, 14 Truth There are two uses of the word parrhesia. First, there is a pejorative sense of the word not very far from chattering, and which consists in saying anyand everything one has in mind without qualification. Second, To my mind, the parrhesiastes says what is true because he knows it is true; and he knows that it is true because it really is true.

10 The Meaning of the Word 14 Truth Contrast the Cartesian view of evidence with Greek parrhesia and with a modern scientific view of truth.

11 The Meaning of the Word 15 Truth In the Greek way of thinking having the truth has to do with the moral qualities of the speaker. Truthhaving is guaranteed by the possession of certain moral qualities. 15 Foucault talks about the parrhesiastic game throughout the lectures where the parrhesiastes has the moral qualities required to convey truth to others.

12 The Meaning of the Word What is a game on Foucault s account? A game is a rule governed activity like the use of language. There is a play of representations and forces, proofs and excuses and words and people are the game pieces.

13 The Meaning of the Word 15 Truth Foucault wants to know how we can tell whether someone has the requisite qualities to be a parrhesiastes and how can he be certain that what he believes is, in fact, the truth.

14 The Meaning of the Word Danger Someone is said to use parrhesia and merits consideration as a parrhesiastes only if there is risk or danger for him in telling the truth. Parrhesia, then, is linked to courage in the face of danger: it demands courage to speak the truth in spite of some danger. And in its extreme form, telling the truth takes place in the game of life or death.

15 The Meaning of the Word 16 Danger The game is not necessarily life and death. It may have to do with a friend warning another not to do something dangerous. The risk is loss of relationship. 17 But the parrhesiastes primarily chooses a specific relationship to himself: he prefers himself as a truth-teller rather than as a living being who is false to himself.

16 The Meaning of the Word 17 Criticism The function of parrhesia is criticism: criticism of the interlocutor or of the speaker himself. 18 The parrhesiastes is always less powerful than the one with whom he speaks. The parrhesiastes is in an inferior position politically, socially etc., so has some risk in saying the truth.

17 The Meaning of the Word 19 Duty in parrhesia, telling the truth is regarded as a duty.

18 The Meaning of the Word 19 Duty To summarize the foregoing, parrhesia is a kind of verbal activity where the speaker has a specific relation to truth through frankness, a certain relationship to his own life through danger, a certain type of relation to himself or other people through criticism (self-criticism or criticism of other people), and a specific relation to moral law through freedom and duty.

19 The Meaning of the Word 19 Duty More precisely, parrhesia is a verbal activity in which a speaker expresses his personal relationship to truth, and risks his life because he recognizes truth-telling as a duty to improve or help other people (as well as himself).

20 Evolution of the Word Rhetoric p. 20 Politics p. 22 Philosophy p. 23

21 Evolution of the Word Why does Foucault talk about evolution of words?

22 Evolution of the Word 20 Rhetoric Rhetoric stands in opposition to parrhesia in Greek thinking. Why? Flattery, the great enemy, is, as well, in opposition to parrhesia. The dialogue through questions and answers is typical for parrhesia; i.e., dialogue is a major technique for playing the parrhesiastic game.

23 Evolution of the Word 21 Rhetoric In the Phaedrus in Plato, the problem is the difference between logos which speaks the truth and the logos which is not capable of such truthtelling. The logos which does not tell the truth corresponds with argument meant to distract from the issue.

24 Evolution of the Word 21 Rhetoric In the Roman Empire, parrhesia is equated to free speech in some forms of rhetoric. It is a sort of figure among rhetorical figures that is a completely natural expression, without pretense or device.

25 Evolution of the Word 22 Politics In Athenian democracy parrhesia plays a central role. We can say quite generally that parrhesia was a guideline for democracy as well as an ethical and personal attitude characteristic of the good citizen. Its field is the agora or marketplace.

26 Evolution of the Word 22 Politics In the Hellenistic period, parrhesia has to do more with advisors speaking to the king, to prevent the abuse of power. This is no longer in the agora. 23 A good ruler is able to play the parrhesiastic game well.

27 Evolution of the Word 23 Politics A sovereign shows himself to be a tyrant if he disregards his honest advisors, or punishes them for what they have said. The parrhesiastic game has three players here, the advisors, the king and the silent majority the advisors speak for.

28 Evolution of the Word 23 Philosophy Philosophy can be thought of as an art of life, as therapeutic. Socrates plays the part of a parrhesiastes when he speaks to the citizens of Athens, urging them to care for themselves by pointing out the truth to them.

29 Evolution of the Word Philosophy In the Apology, he bids them to care for wisdom, truth, and the perfection of their souls. In the Alcibiades, Socrates urges the young man, to care for himself, unlike others who flatter him. Socrates risks Alcibiades anger.

30 Evolution of the Word 24 Philosophy Philosophical parrhesia is thus associated with the theme of the care of oneself (epimeleia heautou). By the time of the Epicureans, parrhesia s affinity with the care of oneself developed to the point where parrhesia itself was primarily regarded as the techne [art] of spiritual guidance

31 Outline Parrhesia in Euripides The Phoenician Woman Hippolytus The Bacchae Electra Ion Orestes Problematizing Parrhesia

32 Parrhesia in Euripides 29 The Phoenician Woman Parrhesia is linked [ ] to Polyneices social status. If you are not a regular citizen in the city, [ ] then you cannot use parrhesia. no free speech > no power > slave women, blacks, Japanese, children no parrhesia > can t oppose ruler s power without right of criticism > tyranny

33 Parrhesia in Euripides 29 The Phoenician Woman The man who exercises power is wise only insofar as there exists someone who can use parrhesia to criticize him, thereby putting some limit to his power, to his command.

34 Parrhesia in Euripides Hippolytus Citizenship by itself does not appear to be sufficient to obtain and guarantee the exercise of free speech. Honor, a good reputation for oneself and one s family, is also needed before one can freely address the people of the city.

35 Parrhesia in Euripides Hippolytus Parrhesia thus requires both moral and social qualifications which come from a noble birth and a respectful reputation. Cultural capital.

36 Parrhesia in Euripides The Bacchae Bearers of bad news were punished. The herdsman has bad news for the king. The herdsman asks King Pentheus if he may use parrhesia because he fears the king s wrath. The king agrees on the condition that the herdsman speak the truth. No harm will come to the herdsman.

37 Parrhesia in Euripides The Bacchae Parrhesiastic contract The sovereign who lacks truth agrees with the powerless who has it that the powerless will not come to harm. 32 This contract was granted to the best and most honest citizens. The contract is intended to limit the risk he takes in speaking.

38 Parrhesia in Euripides Electra Electra makes a parrhesiastic contract with Clytemnestra to avoid being punished. Electra is, asymmetrically, in the position of a slave in relation to Clytemnestra. But Orestes and Electra kill Clytemnestra for her confession

39 Parrhesia in Euripides Electra The one who was granted the privilege of parrhesia is not harmed, but the one who granted the right of parrhesia is. The parrhesiastic contract becomes a subversive trap for Clytemnestra.

40 Parrhesia in Euripides Ion, a parrhesiastic play 38 As part of the shift of oracular truth from Delphi to Athens, truth is no longer disclosed by the gods to human beings (as at Delphi), but is disclosed to human beings by human beings through Athenian parrhesia. The Story

41 Parrhesia in Euripides Ion, a parrhesiastic play The right of political parrhesia is reserved only for those born free and male in Athens. 44 The main motif of Ion concerns the fight for truth against god s silence: human beings must manage, by themselves to discover and to tell the truth.

42 Parrhesia in Euripides Ion, a parrhesiastic play 44 Ion and Creusa play parrhesiastes while Apollo plays an anti-parrhesiastes. Apollo keeps silent, lies, and uses his power to cover up the truth. The roles of Ion and Creusa as parrhesiastes are different.

43 Parrhesia in Euripides Ion, a parrhesiastic play 44 Ion s Role 48 Even though Ion would be the son (of a foreigner and a bastard) of king Xuthus husband of the legitimate heir Creusa, he would be powerless and shunned by all classes of Athenian citizens.

44 Parrhesia in Euripides Ion, a parrhesiastic play 50 If Ion is the son of Xuthus by an unknown nonnative mother, then he would not be a native son of Athens and thence not be able to practice parrhesia. He would be as a slave. 51 If however his mother were Athenian, he would have the right of free speech.

45 Parrhesia in Euripides Ion, a parrhesiastic play Creusa s role 52 Being a woman, Creusa cannot be a parrhesiastes to the king, but will publicly accuse Apollo for his misdeeds. Truth thus comes to light as an emotional reaction to the god s injustice and his lies.

46 Parrhesia in Euripides Ion, a parrhesiastic play 55 Creusa s accusation is a public malediction against Apollo. But in the parrhesiastic discourse with her servant, the roles are reversed. It becomes a confession of sorts with her servant as parrhesiastes extracting painful details of the events.

47 Parrhesia in Euripides Ion, a parrhesiastic play 56 Ion s parrhesia takes the form of truthful political criticism. Creusa s parrhesia takes the form of a truthful accusation against another more powerful than she, and as a confession of the truth about herself.

48 Parrhesia in Euripides Orestes One witness at Orestes trial is called an Athuroglossos. 62 It literally refers to someone who has a tongue but not a door. Hence it implies someone who cannot shut his mouth. 63 You cannot distinguish those occasions when you should speak from those when you should remain silent.

49 Parrhesia in Euripides Orestes 64 Athuroglossos is thus almost synonymous with parrhesia taken in its pejorative sense, and exactly the opposite of parrhesia s positive sense.

50 Parrhesia in Euripides Orestes 67 The first characteristic of the 4th speaker is that he is a man (not a woman) who is courageous. The second characteristic is that he doesn t spend his days in constant discussion in the agora. 68 Thirdly he is one who works his own land, an autourgos, what we would call a self reliant person. 69 Last, he is a man of moral integrity, blameless.

51 Problematizing Parrhesia Around 418 B.C., [during the life of Socrates] parrhesia was presented as having only a positive sense or value. freedom to speak one s mind a privilege conferred on the first citizens of Athens (those born of Athenian parents)

52 Problematizing Parrhesia In the Orestes parrhesia is seen in both its positive and negative aspects. The first problem arises when one asks whether being born a citizen or whether one is a moral citizen gives the right to parrhesia. The second problem relates to the relation between parrhesia and mathesis, to knowledge and education.

53 Problematizing Parrhesia The crisis regarding parrhesia is a problem of truth: for the problem is one of recognizing who is capable of speaking the truth within the limits of an institutional system where everyone is equally entitled to give his own opinion.

54 Problematizing Parrhesia In conclusion: I am trying to analyze the way institutions, practices, habits, and behavior become a problem for people who behave in specific sorts of ways, who have certain types of habits, who engage in certain kinds of practices, and who put to work specific kinds of institutions.

55 Problematizing Parrhesia The history of thought [ ] is the history of the way people begin to take care of something, of the way they become anxious about this or that for example, about madness, about crime, about sex, about themselves, or about truth.

56 Parrhesia in the Crisis of Democratic Institutions

57 Crisis of Democratic Institutions Parrhesia in a democracy becomes a competition for an audience. All citizen voices have equal weight so the important voices are drowned out. Only when an oligarchy reemerges does the positive form of parrhesia find a place again between the rulers and their advisors.

58 Crisis of Democratic Institutions 87 For Aristotle, parrhesia is either a moral-ethical quality, or pertains to free speech as addressed to a monarch.

59 Socratic Parrhesia

60 Socratic Parrhesia Socratic parrhesia is a new kind of speech. How is it new?

61 Socratic Parrhesia Parrhesia in Socrates is linked to the care of oneself. Socrates tests (like a basanos, touchstone) people to see if they are taking proper care of themselves 97 This is done in a truth game which is concerned with the discovery of one s character, a rational accounting of a person s life.

62 Socratic Parrhesia First, Socratic parrhesia is a philosophical activity.

63 Socratic Parrhesia Insofar as the philosopher had to discover and to teach certain truths about the world, nature, etc., he assumed an epistemic role. Taking a stand towards the city, the laws, political institutions, and so on, required, in addition, a political role. And parrhesiastic activity also endeavored to elaborate the nature of the relationships between truth and one s style of life, or truth and an ethics and aesthetics of the self.

64 Socratic Parrhesia Secondly, the target of this new parrhesia is not to persuade the Assembly, but to convince someone that he must take care of himself and of others; this means that he must change his life. One must change one s style of life, one s relation to others, and one s relation oneself.

65 Socratic Parrhesia Conversion to oneself is important from the fourth century BC on into the Christian era.

66 Socratic Parrhesia 107 Thirdly, these new parrhesiastic practices imply a complex set of connections between the self and truth. The circle implied in knowing the truth about oneself in order to know the truth is characteristic of parrhesiastic practice since the Fourth Century, and has been one of the problematic enigmas of Western Thought.

67 Socratic Parrhesia Finally, this new parrhesia is not linked to any particular venue, the agora, the palace, or the schools. It can be practiced anywhere.

68 The Practice of Parrhesia

69 Practice of Parrhesia In Human Relationships Community Life Public Life Personal Relationships In Techniques of Examination: Preliminary Remarks Solitary Self-examination Self-diagnosis Self-testing

70 The Practice of Parrhesia In Community Life 108 Although the Epicureans, with the importance they gave to friendship, emphasized community life more than other philosophers at this time, nonetheless one can also find some Stoic groups as well as Stoic or Stoico-Cynic philosophers, who acted as moral and political advisors to various circles and aristocratic clubs.

71 The Practice of Parrhesia In Community Life Philodemus 110-~40,35 BC 110 Philodemus regards parrhesia not only as a quality, virtue, or personal attitude, but also as a techne comparable both to the art of medicine and to the art of piloting a boat. 111 we can say that navigation, medicine, and the practice of parrhesia are all clinical techniques.

72 The Practice of Parrhesia In Community Life 114 In one s own salvation, [with no reference to an afterlife or judgment] other members of the Epicurean community [ ] have a decisive role to play as necessary agents enabling one to discover the truth about oneself, and in helping one to gain access to a happy life. Hence the very important emphasis on friendship in the Epicurean groups.

73 The Practice of Parrhesia In Public Life Diogenes of Sinope ~404, BC There are parallels between Christianity and Cynic practice. Cynic practice took place from the late 1st century BC to 4th century AD and took Diogenes as their model.

74 The Practice of Parrhesia In Public Life 117 The Cynics thus taught by way of examples and the explanations associated with them. They wanted their own lives to be a blazon of essential truths which would then serve as a guideline, or as an example for others to follow. The Cynic idea that a person is nothing else but his relation to truth, and that this relation to truth takes shape or is given form in his own life that is completely Greek.

75 The Practice of Parrhesia In Public Life 118 But now in the Cynic tradition, the main references for the philosophy are not to the texts of doctrines, but to exemplary lives. The idea that a philosopher s life should be exemplary and heroic is important in understanding the relationship of Cynicism to Christianity, as well as for understanding Cynic parrhesia as a public activity.

76 The Practice of Parrhesia In Public Life 119 The three main types of parrhesiastic practice utilized by the Cynics were: 1. critical preaching; 2. scandalous behavior; and 3. what I shall call the provocative dialogue.

77 The Practice of Parrhesia In Public Life Critical preaching: Cynic preaching about freedom, the renunciation of luxury, Cynic criticisms of political institutions and existing moral codes, and so on, also opened the way for some Christian themes. But Christian proselytes not only spoke about themes which were often similar to the Cynics; they also took over the practice of preaching.

78 The Practice of Parrhesia In Public Life 120 In short, their preaching was against all social institutions insofar as such institutions hindered one s freedom and independence.

79 The Practice of Parrhesia In Public Life (2) Scandalous behavior: (p ) Dio Chrysostom CE

80 The Practice of Parrhesia In Public Life (3) Provocative dialogue: (p ) Most of this is a dialogue between Diogenes and Alexander where Diogenes displays 132 three faulty modes of royal life. The first one is devoted to wealth, the second to physical pleasure, and the third to glory and political power. Diogenes continually prods the king, endangering himself.

81 The Practice of Parrhesia In Public Life 133 In the discourse between Diogenes and Alexander the main effect is not to bring the interlocutor to a new truth, or to a new level of self-awareness; it is to lead the interlocutor to internalize this parrhesiastic struggle to fight within himself against his own faults, and to be with himself in the same way that Diogenes was with him.

82 The Practice of Parrhesia Personal Relationships Plutarch tries to answer the question: How is it possible to recognize a true parrhesiastes or truthteller? And similarly: How is it possible to distinguish a parrhesiastes from a flatterer? 135 We are our own flatterers, and it is in order to disconnect this spontaneous relation we have to ourselves, to rid ourselves of our philautia, that we need a parrhesiastes.

83 The Practice of Parrhesia Personal Relationships 136 How does one recognize a parrhesiastes? 1. There is a connection between his logos and bios. 2. There is a second criterion, which is: the permanence, the continuity, the stability and steadiness of the true parrhesiastes, the true friend, regarding his choices, his opinions, and his thoughts:

84 The Practice of Parrhesia In Techniques of Examination 143 Foucault moves from the necessity for avoiding self-delusion and requiring permanence of spirit to the disciplines necessary for capturing these states of being. In Epicurean, Stoic and Cynic thinking, the need for a method of ensuring parrhesiastic legitimacy drives the establishment of disciplines. This is also the case because philosophy is seen as a therapeutic discipline on par with medical practice.

85 The Practice of Parrhesia In Techniques of Examination 143 First, there is a shift in the use of the word parrhesia meaning courage to tell the truth to other people.

86 The Practice of Parrhesia In Techniques of Examination 144 Secondly, this new kind of parrhesiastic game where the problem is to confront the truth about yourself requires what the Greeks called askesis, where askesis has a very broad sense denoting any kind of practical training or exercise unlike Christian asceticism which has as its ultimate aim or target the renunciation of the self, whereas the moral askesis of the Greco-Roman philosophies has as its goal the establishment of a specific relationship to oneself a relationship of self-possession and self-sovereignty.

87 The Practice of Parrhesia In Techniques of Examination 144 Thirdly most of these texts written in late antiquity about ethics are not at all concerned with advancing a theory about the foundations of ethics, but are practical books containing specific recipes and exercises one had to read, reread, to meditate upon, to learn, in order to construct a lasting matrix for one s own behavior.

88 The Practice of Parrhesia In Techniques of Examination 145 Foucault will look at these exercises (roughly examination of conscience ), in terms of 1. how they differ from one another; 2. what aspects of the mind, feelings, behavior, etc., were considered in these different exercises; 3. that these exercises, despite their differences, implied a relation between truth and the self.

89 The Practice of Parrhesia Solitary self-examination Seneca 4 BC - 65 AD 149 About Seneca: These mistakes are only inefficient actions requiring adjustment between ends and means. They are not sins.

90 The Practice of Parrhesia Solitary self-examination 149 The point of the fault concerns a practical error in his behavior since he was unable to establish an effective rational relation between the principles of conduct he knows and the behavior he actually engaged in.

91 The Practice of Parrhesia Solitary self-examination Seneca does not analyze his responsibility or feelings of guilt; it is not, for him, a question of purifying himself of these faults. Rather, he engages in a kind of administrative scrutiny which enables him to reactivate various rules and maxims in order to make them more vivid, permanent, and effective for future behavior.

92 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-diagnosis 150 Foucault examines the text by Seneca De tranquillitate animi [ On the Tranquillity of Mind ] which has to do with the constancy or steadiness of mind. It denotes stability, self sovereignty, and independence. But tranquillitas also refers to a certain feeling of pleasurable calm which has its source, its principle, in this self-sovereignty or self-possession.

93 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-diagnosis 157 Serenus talks to Seneca about this disturbance of soul in terms of sea-sickness, as if he is coming to a doctor who can cure him: I beg you, therefore, if you have any remedy by which you could stop this fluctuation of mine, to deem me worthy of being indebted to you for tranquillity. I know that these mental disturbances of mine are not dangerous and give no promise of a storm; to express what I complain of in apt metaphor, I am distressed, not by a tempest, but by sea-sickness.

94 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-diagnosis 160 Serenus s instability does not derive from his sins, or from the fact that he exists as a temporal being as in Augustine, for example. It stems from the fact that he has not yet succeeded in harmonizing his actions and thoughts with the ethical structure he has chosen for himself. Because he does not possess the tranquillitas, the firmitas, which comes from complete self-sovereignty. And Seneca s reply to this self-examination and moral request is an exploration of the nature of this stability of mind.

95 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-testing 160 These remarks are about one form of self-testing recommended by Epictetus ( AD). Epictetus problem consists in knowing how to distinguish those representations that he can control from those that he cannot control, that incite involuntary emotions, feelings, behavior, etc., and that must therefore be excluded from his mind. Epictetus solution is that we must adopt an attitude of permanent surveillance with regard to all our representations.

96 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-testing 161 He suggest the use of two metaphors, that of a night watchman and that of a money-changer. The night watchman is to prevent the entrance of any representation without first checking his identity, and the money-changer is one who verifies the authenticity of the currency the representation.

97 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-testing 163 Epictetus gives another exercise. One should ask whether what one sees lies within the province of moral purpose and will. If it does, then keep it, if not, then get rid of it.

98 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-testing 164 Epictetus wants us to constitute a world of representations where nothing can intrude which is not subject to the sovereignty of our will. So, again, self-sovereignty is the organizing principle of this form of self-examination.

99 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-testing 1) 164 The use of parrhesia as frankness of speech, moves from the master/disciple relationship where the master used parrhesia on the disciple, to the disciple being trained to use parrhesia on himself, as a duty of self examination.

100 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-testing 2) 165 These exercises are not strictly designed to teach one to know thyself though that is the result of some of these exercises. For the various relationships which one has to oneself are embedded in very precise techniques which take the form of spiritual exercises dealing with deeds states of equilibrium of the soul the flow of representations, and so on.

101 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-testing 3) 165 What is at stake is the relation of the self to truth or to some rational principles.

102 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-testing The truth of the self involves, on the one hand, a set of rational principles which are grounded in general statements about the world, human life, necessity, happiness, freedom and so on, and, on the other hand, practical rules for behavior.

103 The Practice of Parrhesia Self-testing 166 One can comport oneself towards oneself in the role of a technician, of a craftsman, of an artist, who from time to time stops working, examines what he is doing, reminds himself of the rules of his art, and compares these rules with what he has achieved thus far.

104 Concluding Remarks

105 Concluding Remarks 169 My intention was not to deal with the problem of truth, but with the problem of the truth-teller, and of truth-telling as an activity.

106 Concluding Remarks 170 There are two sides to the problematization of truth in the West. The first side is concerned with determining how to ensure that a statement is true [ ] which I would like to call the analytics of truth. And on the other side, concerned with the question of the importance of telling the truth, knowing who is able to tell the truth, and knowing why we should tell the truth, we have the toots of what we could call the critical tradition in the West.

107 Concluding Remarks And here you will recognize one of my targets in this seminar, namely, to construct a genealogy of the critical attitude in Western philosophy.