Dignity of the Popular Speech: Democratic "Parrhesia" against Michel Foucault

Abstract

In the beginning of 1980’s Michel Foucault lectured on «παρρησία» at the Collège de France. Foucault’s lectures have become an important new way to interpret the parrhesía notion, from the political and philosophical point of view. Basically, Foucault distinguishes between a political parrhesía of democratic nature and a philosophical parrhesía whose origin can be traced to Plato. In this paper I focus my analysis on the political parrhesía, and I try to prove that Foucault’s definition of this concept is not in accordance with the Democratic Thinking of Ancient Athens. According to Foucault, parrhesía is a «une parole d’au-dessus», a discourse spoken from above. However, an alternative interpretation of ancient sources can prove that in reality the parrhesía is a discourse spoken from below. Contrary to what Foucault maintains, the works of Euripides, Demosthenes, Isocrates, and other authors contribute toward finding a popular root in the parrhesía, that it should be defined as the dignity of the popular speech.