The courage to tell the truth

This book is part of a series of lectures given by the renowned French thinker Foucault at the Collège de France in 1984, his final lecture at the institution. Three months later, he passed away. In this year's lectures, Foucault's starting point was an analysis of the ancient Greek concept of parrhesia, characterized by the speaker's truthful speech. Through an analysis of Socrates and Cynicism, Foucault's analysis of parrhesia encompasses three aspects: an analysis of the modes of truth-telling, a study of governmentality, and an identification of self-practices. Foucault argued that the soul must observe itself, like an eye that, in its attempt to reflect upon itself, must see itself through the reflection of another eyeball. This leads to a conception of the self as a reality ontologically separate from the body, a form of soul that potentially holds an ethical responsibility to reflect upon itself. This initiates a model of truth-telling and parrhesia, whose function and purpose is to ultimately guide the soul back to its own way of life and world.

2018-11-01

上海人民出版社

455

9787208155060