Parrhesia

Having followed some very interesting debates initiated by some of my very good friends on Face Book and LinkedIn that did get intense and heated at times; I was reminded of the concept of Parrhesia.

In rhetoric, Parrhesia is a figure of speech described as: "to speak candidly or to ask forgiveness for so speaking". Simply, Parrhesia is frank speech irreducible to power or interest.

While a form of truth telling, such speech is not necessarily equivalent to truth, nor is it independent of time, place, and relationship. Parrhesia is communication that could reconstruct the circumstances in which it occurs - complicated conversation in service to subjective and social reconstruction.

Parrhesia encompasses a broader set of personalized ethical practices that finish by constructing relationships to oneself, to authority, and to truth. Parrhesia aims at truthfulness rather than at persuasion or entertainment. Parrhesia cannot be compelled.

The ethical obligation of Parrhesia draws on the speaker’s capacities to bear alone the burden of speaking truthfully. It is truth, constantly uncovered, critiqued, and reasserted, truth, underwritten by relations of care, care for others and oneself through care for truthfulness.

While relations of care can structure comments on social-media and with colleagues, including figures of authority, it also inspires engagement with persons no longer present, with ideas past as well as present, and with oneself. Practices of Parrhesia enable us to rethink conceptions of “free speech,” “democratic contestation, and “rhetorical persuasion,”

Freedom of speech is exercised rather than attained or conferred. Such exercise is less in the service of getting it right as much as it is the “shakiness” accompanying efforts to “orient” and “steady oneself” within relationships with “oneself, to others, and to truth-telling.”

For Parrhesia to inspire “ethical self- governance,” its practices must contribute to the formation of “coherent subjects,” without “objectifying the individual into a ‘body of knowledge’ or a “role-defined” professional.

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Inspiration from ‘Rethinking Authority in Educational Leadership’ by William F. Pinar appearing in 2017 edited work of Michael Uljens and RoseM. Ylimaki titled “Bridging Educational Leadership, Curriculum Theory and Didaktik” is humbly acknowledged.