The truths we tell ourselves: Foucault on Parrhesia

Abstract

Michel Foucault's later concept of parrhesia presents a number of potential interpretive problems with respect to his work as a whole and his conception of truth. This article presents an alternative reading of parrhesia, which develops its concept through Foucault's earlier pronouncements on truth and fiction. Seen this way, parrhesia becomes a means whereby one enacts useful fictions within the context of one's life. As a practice, which demands self-mastery, orientation towards truth, and a command of one's life, parrhesia becomes crucial to an aesthetics of existence. © Zachary Simpson 2012.