Parrhesia, an attitude of bravery

Parrhesia is a Greek word that means ‘to say everything’.. It is synonymous with concepts such as speaking freely, saying things frankly, ‘daring to speak your mind’ and similar ideas. It refers to that difficult talent of expressing what one thinks, even if it is inconvenient or puts a person in danger.

The concept of parrhesia was mentioned by several Greek philosophers, such as Socrates or Plato. Over time, and particularly in the Middle Ages, it began to be given a derogatory meaning. Instead of the meaning of directness, it was interpreted as speaking without thinking or saying the first thing that came into a person’s head.

French philosopher Michel Foucault recovered the essential meaning of parrhesia and worked on this concept in depthespecially in his works The government of self and others, The courage of truth and Speech and truth. Today, this concept is at the heart of many protest movements.

Parrhesia or the courage to speak

In many times and in many places, speaking is dangerous. It is more evident when power is exercised in a tyrannical way, whether in a society or in small nuclei of it, such as work or the family. Even so, there is also a certain risk in saying something when it goes against the majority or contradicts a dominant discourse.

Why can speaking represent a danger to the speaker? Why does someone who doesn’t want to listen also see what is said as a risk? These questions lead to the essence of what parrhesia is. It is not about talking for the sake of talking, but about speaking the truth. The vehicle of truth is precisely the word.

The truth, in turn, It becomes dangerous when it exposes something that, for manipulation or convenience, wants to be left hidden.. Inconvenient truths unmask, that is, they break the veil and reveal something that is inconvenient for someone.

The powers that be are often merciless towards those who dare to challenge their lies. with the weapon of the true and frank word. The response is usually harassment, discredit, persecution or ostracism. They must pay for having said. That is what parrhesia alludes to, and that is why it is a type of frankness that demands courage.

The three coordinates of parrhesia

According to Foucault, parrhesia is a concept associated with ethics now the politics. This philosopher understood ethics as caring for oneself, while he defined politics as caring for others. In both areas, parrhesia was a fundamental behavior.

Likewise, what defined parrhesia and the parrhesiastes, or people who exercise it, are three fundamental features. The first is the one we have already mentioned: a subject who speaks and tells the truth. However, The important thing there is not that truth, but the commitment that the person has with it.. So this trait would be something like “willingness to speak the truth.”

The second feature is that this truth implies a risk. It cannot be a harmless truth and it is not funny to say it, for example, to someone who is in a position of vulnerability. Implicit in the commitment to tell the truth is the ethical value of doing so “despite everything.” The third trait follows from the above: it requires courage or courage. There are no cowardly parrhesiastes.

The collective parrhesia

The philosopher Judith Butler, in her work Without fear. Forms of resistance to today’s violenceindicates that parrhesia can also be exercised collectively. In today’s world there are people who come together around a common truth, confront power and exercise resistance through words.

Other philosophers have drawn attention to the fact that parrhesia should be exercised, in today’s world, especially by journalists. However, that is not the case. Edward Snowden or Julian Assange could be exceptions.

This frankness of parrhesia often has to be exercised in more private settings. Its function is not to challenge as such, but to combat lies., which almost always serves petty interests. It is not “sincericide”, but commitment to the truth.

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