Abstract:
Michel Foucault defined parrhesia as “the free courage by which one binds oneself in the act of telling the truth.” Could telling objective untruth also be a parrhesiastic act, insofar as it requires courage and initiates subjectivation? Climate deniers, anti-vaccinationists and other groups that delegitimize the authority of science present themselves as courageously standing up against the dominant discourse, as rebellious subjects who speak the inconvenient and unaccepted truths. It is not difficult to prove that their truths are untruths, but it remains problematic to distinguish true courage from its simulacra. This article argues that Foucault’s investigations of truth, subjectivity, and power become of great use in the face of today’s confusion. The phenomenon of post-truth cannot be explained simply as the product of postmodern relativism. The will-to-truth, along with the will to constitute oneself as a truth-telling subject, persists, requiring critical analysis more than ever. What may prove politically efficient is to engage in the kind of critique that would account for actual power relations and unmask false courage rather than debunk specific concepts or ideas.
Keywords:
Michel Foucault, parrhesia, truth, post-truth, courage, subjectivity, power
How to cite:
Herer, Michał. “The Courage of Untruth?” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 6, no. 2 (2022): 62-69. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2022.0016.
Author:
Michał Herer
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Warsaw
Krakowskie Przedmieście 3, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0808-7852
michal.herer@uw.edu.pl
References:
Block, David. Post-Truth and Political Discourse. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00497-2.
Durbach, Nadja. Bodily Matters: The Anti-Vaccination Movement in England, 1853-1907. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822386506.
Foucault, Michel. “The Ethics of the Concern for Self as a Practice of Freedom,” translated by Phillis Aranov and Dan McGrawth. In vol. 1 of Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth. The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954-1984. Edited by Paul Rabinow. New York: New Press, 1998.
Foucault, Michel. The Government of Self and Others. Lectures at the Collège de France. 1982-1983. Translated by Graham Burchell. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Foucault, Michel. The Hermeneutics of the Subject. Lectures at the Collège de France. 1981-1982. Translated by Graham Burchell. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Foucault, Michel. “The Return of Morality. Interview with Gilles Barbedette and André Scala.” In Politics, Philosophy, Culture. Interviews and Other Writings. 1977-1984. Edited by Lawrence D. Kritzman. New York: Routledge, 1988.
Foucault, Michel. “What is Enlightenment?,” translated Catherine Porter. In vol. 1 of Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth. The Essential Works of Michel Foucault, 1954-1984. Edited by Paul Rabinow. New York: New Press, 1998.
Fuller, Steve. Post-Truth. Knowledge as a Power Game. London: Anthem Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvgd30v.
Hausman, Bernice L. Anti/Vax: Reframing the Vaccination Controversy. New York: IRL Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501735639.
Icke, David. Perceptions of a Renegade Mind. Isle of Wight: David Icke Books, 2021.
Kimmel, Michael. Angry White Men. American Masculinity at the End of an Era. New York: Nation Books, 2013.
Klein, Naomi. This Changes Everything. Capitalism vs. The Climate. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014.
Lyotard, Jean-François. The Differend. Phrases in Dispute. Translated by Georges Van Den Abbeele. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988.
Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Translated by Goeff Benington and Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
McComiskey, Bruce. Post-Truth Rhetoric and Composition. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2017. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1w76tbg.
McIntyre, Lee. Post-Truth. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2018. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11483.001.0001.
Meier, Barry. Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic. New York: Random House, 2003.
Open Access Statement:
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, as long as the author and original source are properly cited. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Submitting a text to Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture means that the author agrees with the general conditions of this license. The author does and will maintain copyrights and publishing rights for his/her article without any restrictions.