FOUCAULT.INFO 

Discourse and Truth: the Problematization of Parrhesia.

six lectures given by Michel Foucault at the University of California at Berkeley, Oct-Nov. 1983

" My intention was not to deal with the problem of truth, but with the problem of truth-teller or truth-telling as an activity. By this I mean that, for me, it was not a question of analyzing the internal or external criteria that would enable the Greeks and Romans, or anyone else, to recognize whether a statement or proposition is true or not. At issue for me was rather the attempt to consider truth-telling as a specific activity, or as a role. "  Discourse & Truth, Concluding remarks by Foucault.

1. The Meaning and Evolution of the Word "Parrhesia"
2. Parrhesia in the Tragedies of Euripides
3. Parrhesia and the Crisis of Democratic Institutions
4. Practice of Parrhesia
5. Techniques of the Parrhesiastic Games
6. Concluding Remarks to the Seminar

Ed. by Joseph Pearson in 1985 :" The text was compiled from tape-recordings made of six lectures delivered, in English, by Michel Foucault at the University of California at Berkeley in the Fall Term of 1983. The lectures were given as part of Foucault's seminar, entitled "Discourse and Truth". Since Foucault did not write, correct, or edit any part of the text which follows, it lacks his imprimatur and does not present his own lecture notes. What is given here constitutes only the notes of one of his auditors. Altough the present text is primarily a verbatim transcription of the lectures, repetitive sentences or phrases have been eliminated, responses to questions have been incorparated, whenever possible, into the lectures themselves, and numerous sentences have been revised , all in the hope of producing a more readable set of notes."
Reed. 1999 : Transcripted for web from photocopies, the footnotes and bibliography added by J.Pearson are missing.
Reed. 2006: Some Greek quotes added, reorganisation into 6 files and formatting.

Available in photocopy and audiotapes. [BdS n D213.] (Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University, 1985), also at IMEC, Paris.
- Dutch translation: Parresia (Amsterdam: Krisis, 1989).
- Published under the title "Fearless Speech" (Semiotext(e) / Foreign Agents 2001