DOCSLIB.ORG

Examined Lives Excerpt Intro

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Examined Lives Excerpt Intro introduction Of all those who start out on philosophyÐ not those who take it up for the sake of getting educated when they are young and then drop it, but those who linger in it for a longer timeÐ most become quite queer, not to say completely vicious; while the ones who seem perfectly decent . become useless. —, Republic (487c± d) Q Excerpted from EXAMINED LIVES: From Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller. Published in January 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by James Miller. All rights reserved. 042-44795_ch01_5P.indd 3 10/29/10 11:17 PM Excerpted from EXAMINED LIVES: From Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller. Published in January 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by James Miller. All rights reserved. 042-44795_ch01_5P.indd 4 10/29/10 11:17 PM nce upon a time, phi los o phers were ! gures of wonder. " ey o were sometimes objects of derision and the butt of jokes, but they were more o# en a source of shared inspiration, o$ ering, through words and deeds, models of wisdom, patterns of conduct, and, for those who took them seriously, examples to be emulated. Stories about the great phi los o phers long played a formative role in the culture of the W est. For Roman writers such as C icero, Seneca, and M arcus A urelius, one way to mea sure spiritual progress was to compare one's conduct with that of Socrates, whom they all considered a paragon of perfect virtue. Sixteen hundred years later, John Stuart M ill (1806± 1873) simi- larly learned classical G reek at a tender age in order to read the Socratic ªM emorabiliaº of X enophon (fourth century %.&.) and selected Lives of the Em inent Phi los o phers, as retold by D iogenes Laertius, a G reek fol- lower of Epicurus who is thought to have lived in the third century .*. A part from the absurdly young age at which M ill was forced to de- vour it, there was nothing unusual about his reading list. U ntil quite re- cently, those able to read the G reek and Roman classics were routinely nourished, not just by X enophon and Plato but also by the moral essays of Seneca and Plutarch, which were ! lled with edifying stories about the bene! ts and consolations of philosophy. A n educated person was likely to know something about Socrates, but also about the ªEpicurean,º Excerpted from EXAMINED LIVES: From Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller. Published in January 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by James Miller. All rights reserved. 042-44795_ch01_5P.indd 5 10/29/10 11:17 PM 6 exam ined lives the ªStoic,º and the ªSkepticºÐ philosophical types still of interest to D avid H ume (1711± 1776), who wrote about each one in his Essays, Moral and Po liti cal (1741± 1742). For H ume, as for D iogenes Laertius, each philosophical type was expressed not only in a doctrine but also in a way of lifeÐ a pattern of conduct exempli! ed in the biographical details recounted by D iogenes Laertius about such ! gures as Epicurus, the found er of Epicureanism; Zeno, traditionally regarded as the ! rst Stoic; and Pyrrho, who inaugu- rated one branch of ancient Skepticism. Besides H ume and M ill, both K arl M arx (1818± 1883) and Friedrich N ietz sche (1844± 1900)Ðto take two equally modern examplesÐ also studied ! e Lives of the Em inent Phi los o phers. Indeed, both M arx and N ietz sche, while still in their twenties, wrote scholarly treatises based, in part, on close study of just this work. Today, by contrast, most highly educated people, even professional phi los o phers, know nothing about either D iogenes Laertius or the vast majority of the ancient phi los o phers whose lives he recounted. In many schools in many countries, especially the U nited States, the classical curriculum has been largely abandoned. M odern textbooks generally scant the lives of phi los o phers, reinforcing the contemporary percep- tion that philosophy is best understood as a purely technical discipline, revolving around specialized issues in semantics and logic. " e typical modern philosopherÐ the K ant of the C ritique of Pure Reason (1781), say, or the John R awls of A ! eory of Justice (1971)Ð is largely identi! ed with his books. It is generally assumed that ªphiloso- phyº refers to ªthe study of the most general and abstract features of the world and the categories with which we think: mind, matter, rea- son, proof, truth etc.,º to quote the de! nition o$ ered by the outstand- ing recent O xford Dictionary of Philosophy. M oreover, in the modern university, where both K ant and R awls practiced their calling, aspiring phi los o phers are routinely taught, among other things, that the truth of a proposition should be evaluated in de pen dently of anything we may know about the person holding that proposition. A s the phi los o- pher Seyla Benhabib puts it, ªPhilosophical theories make claims to truth that transcend historical and social context. From inside the dis- cipline, the details of personal lives seem quite irrelevant to under- standing or evaluating a thinker's views.º Excerpted from EXAMINED LIVES: From Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller. Published in January 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by James Miller. All rights reserved. 042-44795_ch01_5P.indd 6 10/29/10 11:17 PM introduction 7 Such a principled disregard of ad hominem evidence is a character- istically modern prejudice of professional phi los o phers. For most G reek and Roman thinkers from Plato to A ugustine, theorizing was but one mode of living life philosophically. To Socrates and the countless classical phi los o phers who tried to follow in his footsteps, the primary point was not to ratify a certain set of propositions (even when the abil- ity to de! ne terms and analyze arguments was a constitutive compo- nent of a school's teaching), but rather to explore ªthe kind of person, the sort of selfº that one could elaborate as a result of taking the quest for wisdom seriously. For G reek and Roman phi los o phers, ªphilosoph- ical discourse . originates in a choice of life and an existential optionÐ not vice versa.º Or, as Socrates puts it in the pages of X enophon's M em orabilia, ªIf I don't reveal my views in a formal account, I do so by my conduct. D on't you think that actions are more reliable evidence than words?º In ancient G reece and Rome, it was widely assumed that the life of a phi los o pher would exemplify in practice a speci! c code of conduct and form of life. A s a result, biographical details were routinely cited in appraisals of a philosophy's value. " at Socrates faced death with dig- nity, for example, was widely regarded as an argument in favor of his declared views on the conduct of life. But did Socrates really face death with dignity? H ow can we be con- ! dent that we know the truth about how Socrates actually behaved? Faced with such questions, the distrust of modern phi los o phers for ad hominem argument tends to be reinforced by a similarly modern skep- ticism about the kinds of stories traditionally told about phi los o phers. C onsider the largest extant compilation of philosophical biogra- phies, the anthology of D iogenes Laertius. " is work starts with " ales of M iletus (c. 624± 546 %.&.): ªTo him belongs the proverb `Know thy- self,' º D iogenes Laertius writes with typically nonchalant imprecision, ªwhich A ntisthenes in his Successions of Phi los o phers attributes to Phe- monoe, though admitting that it was appropriated by C hilon.º H e de- scribes " ales as the ! rst absentminded professor: ªIt is said that once, when he was taken out of doors by an old woman in order that he might observe the stars, he fell into a ditch, and his cry for help drew from the old woman the retort, `How can you expect to know all about the heav- ens, " ales, when you cannot even see what is just before your feet?' º Excerpted from EXAMINED LIVES: From Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller. Published in January 2011 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2011 by James Miller. All rights reserved. 042-44795_ch01_5P.indd 7 10/29/10 11:17 PM 8 exam ined lives " e work of D iogenes Laertius has long vexed modern scholars. H is compilation represents an evidently indiscriminate collection of material from a wide array of sources. D espite its uneven quality, his collection of maxims, excerpts from poems, and extracts from theoretical treatises remains a primary source for what little we know today about the doc- trines held by a great many ancient G reek phi los o phers, from " ales and H eraclitus (c. 540± 480 %.&.) to Epicurus (341± 270 %.&.). D iogenes' anecdotes, on the other hand, have o# en been discounted, in part because he makes no e$ ort to evaluate the quality of his sources, in part because his biographies are riddled with contradictions, and in+part because some of the stories he recounts simply beggar belief. " e stories preserved by D iogenes Laertius occupy a twilight zone between truth and ! ction. From the startÐ in the Socratic dialogues of PlatoÐ the life of the phi los o pher was turned into a kind of myth and treated as a species of poetry, entering into the collective imagination as a mnemonic condensation, in an exemplary narrative, of what a con- sidered way of life might mean in practice.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Foucault and Deleuze, April 2014 Nicolae Morar, Penn State University, Thomas Nail, University of Denver, and Daniel W
    Nicolae Morar, Thomas Nail, and Daniel W. Smith 2014 ISSN: 1832‐5203 Foucault Studies, No. 17, pp. 4‐10, April 2014 INTRODUCTION Foucault Studies Special Issue: Foucault and Deleuze, April 2014 Nicolae Morar, Penn State University, Thomas Nail, University of Denver, and Daniel W. Smith, Purdue University Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault are widely accepted to be central figures of post‐war French philosophy. Philosophers, cultural theorists, and others have devoted considerable effort to the critical examination of the work of each of these thinkers, but despite the strong biographical and philosophical connection between Foucault and Deleuze, very little has been done to explore the relationship between them. This special issue of Foucault Studies is the first collection of essays to address this critical deficit with a rigorous comparative discussion of the work of these two philosophers. Deleuze’s Course Lectures on Foucault In particular, this special issue is motivated by the recent (2011) online publication of Gilles Deleuze’s course lectures on Michel Foucault (1985‐86) at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (French National Library) in Paris. The BNF collected the available recordings of Deleuze’s seminar lectures at the University of Paris 8 and converted them into digital files. Needless to say, the task was a painstaking one, but the mp3 files have now been made accessible online through the Gallica search engine at the library.1 When Foucault died in 1984, Deleuze was so affected by the death of his friend, that he began lecturing and writing a book about Foucault’s philosophical corpus immediately. When asked why he wanted to write such a book, Deleuze was quite clear, “it marks an inner need of mine, my admiration for him, how I was moved by his death, and his unfinished work.”2 Deleuze’s desire for some kind of reconciliation with Foucault seems to have been a mutual one.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 from the Loving Struggle to the Struggle to Love
    1 ᳚ From the Loving Struggle to the Struggle to Love A Conversation with Calvin O. Schrag RAMSEY ERIC RAMSEY AND DAVID JAMES MILLER INTRODUCTORY REMARKS RER/DJM: Professor Schrag, we are immensely grateful for the opportu- nity to reflect here on the richness of the work that marks your distin- guished career. We hope that, in some small way, we can offer something here that acknowledges the time, encouragement, and support you so selflessly and graciously give those who are working in philosophy and communication. It is our intention to conduct this conversation in such a way that it will prove to be useful both to those who are familiar with your work and to those as yet unfamiliar with it. We hope to offer those already familiar with the work, not only further contextualization, but a new perspective on the work as well. We have always believed that the radical implications of your work, implications that have become obvious to us in our many conversations with you, have too often been overlooked, and we hope that in this conversation we can bring some of these implications to the fore. For those unfamiliar with your work, we hope to offer a consoli- dated, if not a comprehensive, introduction to your thought. In discussing your work, it will become evident that we have a par- ticular interest in your reflections on the phenomenon of “communicative praxis.” We are scholars trained in both the disciplines of philosophy and communication and have been dedicated from the first to an elaboration of the philosophy of communication.
    [Show full text]
  • Critical Inquiry As Virtuous Truth-Telling: Implications of Phronesis and Parrhesia ______
    ______________________________________________________________________________ Critical Inquiry as Virtuous Truth-Telling: Implications of Phronesis and Parrhesia ______________________________________________________________________________ Austin Pickup, Aurora University Abstract This article examines critical inquiry and truth-telling from the perspective of two comple- mentary theoretical frameworks. First, Aristotelian phronesis, or practical wisdom, offers a framework for truth that is oriented toward ethical deliberation while recognizing the contingency of practical application. Second, Foucauldian parrhesia calls for an engaged sense of truth-telling that requires risk from the inquirer while grounding truth in the com- plexity of human discourse. Taken together, phronesis and parrhesia orient inquirers to- ward intentional truth-telling practices that resist simplistic renderings of criticality and overly technical understandings of research. This article argues that truly critical inquiry must spring from the perspectives of phronesis and parrhesia, providing research projects that aim at virtuous truth-telling over technical veracity with the hope of contributing to ethical discourse and social praxis. Keywords: phronesis, praxis, parrhesia, critical inquiry, truth-telling Introduction The theme of this special issue considers the nature of critical inquiry, specifically methodological work that remains committed to explicit goals of social justice and the good. One of the central concerns of this issue is that critical studies have lost much of their meaning due to a proliferation of the term critical in educational scholarship. As noted in the introduction to this issue, much contemporary work in education research that claims to be critical may be so in name only, offering but methodological techniques to engage in critical work; techniques that are incapable of inter- vening in both the epistemological and ontological formations of normative practices in education.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Parrhesia 2.0: Moving Beyond Deceptive Communications Strategies in the Digital World François Allard-Huver, Nicholas Gilewicz
    Digital Parrhesia 2.0: Moving beyond deceptive communications strategies in the digital world François Allard-Huver, Nicholas Gilewicz To cite this version: François Allard-Huver, Nicholas Gilewicz. Digital Parrhesia 2.0: Moving beyond deceptive communi- cations strategies in the digital world. Handbook of Research on Digital Media and Creative Tech- nologies, pp.404-416, 2015, 978-1-4666-8205-4. 10.4018/978-1-4666-8205-4.ch017. hal-02092103 HAL Id: hal-02092103 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02092103 Submitted on 7 Apr 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Digital Parrhesia 2.0: Moving beyond Deceptive Communications Strategies in the Digital World François Allard-Huver Sorbonne University, France Nicholas Gilewicz University of Pennsylvania, USA ABSTRACT Deceptive communications strategies are further problematized in digital space. Because digitally mediated communication easily accommodates pseudonymous and anonymous speech, digital ethos depends upon finding the proper balance between the ability to create pseudonymous and anonymous online presences and the public need for transparency in public speech. Analyzing such content requires analyzing media forms and the honesty of speakers themselves. This chapter applies Michel Foucault’s articulation of parrhesia—the ability to speak freely and the concomitant public duties it requires of speakers—to digital communication.
    [Show full text]
  • A Case of Parrhesia: Courage in Discourse and Its Effects
    Original Article A CASE OF PARRHESIA: COURAGE IN DISCOURSE AND ITS EFFECTS Thiago Barbosa SOARES* ▪ ABSTRACT: This article aims to analyze the meanings of parrhesia and its effects in a statement by a Brazilian federal representative, that breaks with hegemonic discourse. More precisely, we describe and interpret how the production and emergence of parrhesia functions to configure meanings in a statement constituted and developed within the vote regarding the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff’s mandate in 2016, delivered by Jean Wyllys. In this way, considering the postulate of Discourse Analysis, developed by Pêcheux, in which subject and meaning are constructed simultaneously in the historical movement, we hold that parrhesia, as Foucault observes it in his final works, produces, simultaneously, certain meanings and subjects circulating in the social space. Given this conceptual framework, we employ the theoretical and methodological tools of Discourse Analysis to investigate how truth-telling is constructed and what its effects are on the treadmill of resistance against discursive hegemony. ▪ KEYWORDS: discourse analysis; parrhesia; Jean Wyllys. Introduction A ‘discourse’ is not an infrastructure; nor is it another word for ‘ideology’. In fact, it is, rather, the opposite, despite what is often claimed either in writing or by word of mouth. (VEYNE, 2008, p.28) Paul Veyne is right in saying what discourse is not, in order to dispel certain existing interpretations about discourse. Likewise, eschewing generic readings of discourse is desirable and even necessary in the scope of our object of investigation, since the exercise of parrhesia - which “implies speech equality, the right to speak”, that is, isegory -, as understood by Michel Foucault, it is more than truth-telling, it is an ethical act whose implication is the conjuration of the effects of the discourse.
    [Show full text]
  • Foucault and the Politics of Rights
    Peter D Burdon* FOUCAULT AND THE POLITICS OF RIGHTS BY BEN GOLDER STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2015 XII + 264 PP ISBN 978 0 804 79649 1 INTRODUCTION n the last 50 years, human rights have become the international moral currency and ‘umbrella’ under which all kinds of justice claims are made. This includes Inot only foundational rights articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but, more recently, rights for a clean environment and rights for nature itself.1 Such is the dominance of rights talk that they are sometimes billed as the only game in town2 or the ‘last utopia’3 for social and political struggle. Against this trend (what Louis Henkin terms ‘The Age of Rights’4) there is a growing critical literature that problematises the theoretical consistency and long-term efficacy of human rights.5 Further, scholars have examined whether human rights might perpetuate harm6 and crowd out more radical political projects that address the root of a particular political problem.7 It is from within this growing critical literature that I situate Ben Golder’s recent book, Foucault and the Politics of Rights. Golder is one of the most original and innovative legal theorists working in Australia. His books and numerous essays demonstrate a consistent commitment to scholarly rigour and reflection on contemporary political problems. His work encapsulates * Associate Professor, Adelaide Law School. Please send correspondence to peter.d. [email protected]. 1 Christopher D Stone, Should Trees Have Standing? Law, Morality, and the Environ- ment (Oxford University Press, 3rd ed, 2010). 2 Kerri Woods, Human Rights and Environmental Sustainability (Edward Elgar, 2010) 8.
    [Show full text]
  • Foucault As a Guide for Christian Faithfulness
    Book reviews How God Acts was published collaboratively by Fortress Press (in its Theology and the Sciences series) and ATF Theology for an Australasian audience. It is a fair no less than challenging book, both in substance and in style. Typographical errors are few and even the decision to place refer- ences as endnotes mars the book but a little. How God Acts deserves a wide readership. David Neville Associate Professor School of Theology, Charles Sturt University Witnessing the violence of late capitalism: Foucault as a guide for Christian faithfulness Jonathan Tran, Foucault and Theology, T&T Clark International, London, 2011, hardcover, 224 pages, ISBN 9780567033420, £50.00. Over the past decade a number of influential philosophers from the Continental tradition have turned to the letters of Paul, the Early Church Fathers, and Christian theology more broadly to examine the modern political subject, democratic governance and liberal economy. Recent works by Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou and Slavjo Žižek have contributed to a growing theopolitical literature and re-engagement of philosophy and theology. It is in this context that T & T Clark’s Philosophy and Theology series is situated. While including titles on Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and their respective relations to theology, the series also addresses more recent contributions from Vattimo, Derrida, Agamben and Žižek. An important, yet perhaps uncomfortable, inclusion to this series is Michel Foucault. Foucault is an important inclusion due to his profound and sustained influence on contemporary political philosophy, sociology, critical theory and gradually, theology. However, Foucault is also an awkward inclu- sion. Unlike the philosophers already mentioned, Foucault did not directly engage theology or the Christian tradition for theological purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • Select Foucault Bibliography
    Select Foucault Bibliography by John Protevi / Permission to reproduce granted for academic use [email protected] / http://www.protevi.com/john/Foucault/PDF/Foucault_Bibliography.pdf I. Translations of the Major Works | II. Interviews, Essays, etc. | III. Secondary Literature | IV. Biographies and Biographical Criticism I. Translations of the Major Works • Mental Illness and Psychology [1954] (NY: Harper & Row, 1976). • Madness and Civilization [1961] (NY: Pantheon, 1965). • Birth of the Clinic [1963] (NY: Pantheon, 1973). • The Order of Things [1966] (NY: Pantheon, 1970). • The Archaeology of Knowledge [1969] (NY: Pantheon, 1972). • Discipline and Punish [1975] (NY: Pantheon, 1977). • The History of Sexuality • Vol. I: An Introduction [1976] (NY: Pantheon, 1978). • Vol. II: The Use of Pleasure [1984] (NY: Random House, 1985). • Vol. III: The Care of the Self [1984] (NY: Random House, 1986). II. Interviews, Essays, etc. • Language, Counter-Memory, Practice (Cornell UP, 1977). • Power/Knowledge [1972-77] (NY: Pantheon, 1980). • The Foucault Reader (NY: Pantheon, 1984). • The Final Foucault (MIT Press, 1988). also secondary essays and bibliography. • The Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984 [1994] • Volume I: Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth (NY: The New Press 1997) • Volume II: Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology (NY: The New Press, 1998) III. Secondary Literature A. Books • Foucault: The Will to Truth, by Alan Sheridan (Tavistock, 1980). • Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, by Hubert Dreyfus & Paul Rabinow (U Chicago, 1982). • Foucault, Marxism and History, by Mark Poster (Polity Press,1984). • Foucault, by Gilles Deleuze (U Minnesota, 1988). • MF's Archaeology of Scientific Reason, by Gary Gutting (Cambridge UP, 1989). • Michel Foucault's Force of Flight, by James Bernauer (Humanities, 1991).
    [Show full text]
  • The Meaning of Hermeneutics and Symbolism
    PARRHESIA WWW.PARRHESIAJOURNAL.ORG ISSUE 1 201 INTRODUCTION The meaning of hermeneutics is not something exclusive to hermeneutics; it is not something the hermeneutical enterprise dominates, masters, or even manages. Rather, hermeneutics must understand itself as an activity at the behest of meaning, which it is incapable to exhaust or contain. The meaning of hermeneutics therefore does not belong to hermeneutics, but, on the contrary, hermeneutics belongs to meaning. Its meaning is that which, in one way or another, always pursues and persecutes human beings, who, as interpreting or symbolic animals, is thus limited to a realization of what humans already do—whether explicitly or implicitly; actively or passively—in their individual and collective lives: a search for meaning.1 Now, philo-sophers love and pursue a forever-elusive wisdom, even though, according to Plato, just by the fact of pursuing it, we are guided by it, at least with Socrates and Nicolas of Cusa, to the point of docta ignorantia. In parallel with this and likewise in the search for meaning, be it existential or hermeneutical, meaning. Rather, its evident result is meaninglessness, since, without the felt disquietude of the latter there would not have been any search whatsoever. This search may even lead us to the understanding that human meaning consists in assuming and accepting ontico-literal, effective, patent meaninglessness, so as to thrust it open to ontologico-symbolic, affective, latent meaning. Resignation appears here as the possibility of re- signation [re-signación] (Vattimo) and of as-signment [a-signación], given that the resigned acceptance of the absence of absolute, powerful, and explicit meaning makes possible the acknowledgement of the humanness of our interpretations as such and the assignment to life and the universe of a plurality of linguistic, symbolic, relative or relational, meanings.
    [Show full text]
  • Discourse and Truth: the Problematization of Parrhesia. (Six Lectures Given by Michel Foucault at Berkeley, Oct-Nov
    The data is from: foucault.info/downloads/discourseandtruth.doc Discourse and Truth: The Problematization of Parrhesia. (six lectures given by Michel Foucault at Berkeley, Oct-Nov. 1983) THE MEANING OF THE WORD "PARRHESIA" 1. Parrhesia and Frankness 2. Parrhesia and Truth 3. Parrhesia and Danger 4. Parrhesia and Criticism 5. Parrhesia and Duty THE EVOLUTION OF THE WORD “PARRHESIA” 1. Parrhesia and Rhetoric 2. Parrhesia and Politics 3. Parrhesia and Philosophy PARRHESIA IN THE TRAGEDIES OF EURIPIDES 1. Phoenician Women 2. Hippolytus 3. The Bacchae 4. Electra 5. Ion 6. Orestes 7. Problematization of parrhesia PARRHESIA AND THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS PRACTICES OF PARRHESIA 1. Socratic Parrhesia 2. Parrhesia and Community Life 3. Parrhesia and Public Life 4. Parrhesia and Personal Relationships TECHNIQUES OF THE PARRHESIASTIC GAMES 1. Seneca & evening examination 2. Serenus & general self-scrutiny 3. Epictetus & control of representations 4. Conclusion CONCLUDING REMARKS Foucault.info 1 / 67 The Meaning of the Word " Parrhesia " The word "parrhesia" [παρρησία] appears for the first time in Greek literature in Euripides [c.484-407 BC], and occurs throughout the ancient Greek world of letters from the end of the Fifth Century BC. But it can also still be found in the patristic texts written at the end of the Fourth and during the Fifth Century AD -dozens of times, for instance, in Jean Chrisostome [AD 345-407] . There are three forms of the word : the nominal form " parrhesia " ; the verb form "parrhesiazomai" [παρρησιάζοµαι]; and there is also the word "parrhesiastes"[παρρησιαστής] --which is not very frequent and cannot be found in the Classical texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Rhetoric: the Modern Parrhesia
    The Catalyst Volume 4 | Issue 1 Article 5 2017 Political Rhetoric: The oM dern Parrhesia Jessica Townsend University of Southern Mississippi, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://aquila.usm.edu/southernmisscatalyst Part of the Political Theory Commons Recommended Citation Townsend, Jessica (2017) "Political Rhetoric: The odeM rn Parrhesia," The Catalyst: Vol. 4 : Iss. 1 , Article 5. DOI: 10.18785/cat.0401.05 Available at: http://aquila.usm.edu/southernmisscatalyst/vol4/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in The aC talyst by an authorized editor of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Catalyst Volume 4 | Issue 1 | Article 5 2017 Political Rhetoric: The Modern Parrhesia Jessica Townsend The French philosopher Michel Foucault is substantial manner by speaking this truth, use best known among academics as a theorizer this truth to criticize the audience, and feel a of human nature and social relationships. sense of duty to speak this criticism (Foucault Although his areas of expertise did not 1983). The risk that goes along with parrhesia encompass politics, which he attempted typically includes risk of life, punishment, or to avoid altogether in his writings, many significant loss of social standing. Because of of his philosophical ideas have been re- this, the truth-teller must be subordinate to examined inside a political context. One of the audience. However, the one speaking with his major theories, the idea of free speech parrhesia, the parrhesiastes, also must be free known as parrhesia, has made its way to the to speak the truth freely of his own accord; foreground of scrutiny by political theorists meaning that he must also not be a slave or as well as an internationally-acclaimed non-citizen, in the case of ancient Greece expert in rhetoric and professor by the name (Foucault 1983).
    [Show full text]
  • European Journal of American Studies, 10-3 | 2015, « Special Double Issue: the City » [En Ligne], Mis En Ligne Le 31 Décembre 2015, Consulté Le 08 Juillet 2021
    European journal of American studies 10-3 | 2015 Special Double Issue: The City Édition électronique URL : https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11186 DOI : 10.4000/ejas.11186 ISSN : 1991-9336 Éditeur European Association for American Studies Référence électronique European journal of American studies, 10-3 | 2015, « Special Double Issue: The City » [En ligne], mis en ligne le 31 décembre 2015, consulté le 08 juillet 2021. URL : https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/ 11186 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.11186 Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 8 juillet 2021. Creative Commons License 1 SOMMAIRE PART ONE Spatial Justice and the Right to the City: Conflicts around Access to Public Urban Space Introduction Aneta Dybska et Sandrine Baudry Urban Discourses in the Making: American and European Contexts Where the War on Poverty and Black Power Meet: A Right to the City Perspective on American Urban Politics in the 1960s Aneta Dybska Who Has the Right to the Post-Socialist City? Writing Poland as the Other of Marxist Geographical Materialism Kamil Rusiłowicz Segregation or Assimilation: Dutch Government Research on Ethnic Minorities in Dutch Cities and its American Frames of Reference Ruud Janssens Public Art: Transnational Connections “The cornerstone is laid”: Italian American Memorial Building in New York City and Immigrants’ Right to the City at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Bénédicte Deschamps Performing the Return of the Repressed: Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Artistic Interventions in New York City's Public Space Justyna Wierzchowska
    [Show full text]