Michel Foucault’s speech on notion of parresia published for Persian readers 

TEHRAN – “The Government of Self and Others”, which covers the speeches French philosopher and writer Michel Foucault made at the Collège de France between 1982 and 1983, has been published in Persian.

Cheshmeh is the publisher of the book rendered into Persian by Seyyed Mohammad-Javad Seyyedi.

The book launches an inquiry into the notion of parresia and continues his rereading of ancient philosophy. 

Through the study of this notion of truth-telling, of speaking out freely, Foucault re-examines Greek citizenship, showing how the courage of the truth forms the forgotten ethical basis of Athenian democracy. 

The figure of the philosopher king, the condemnation of writing, and Socrates’ rejection of political involvement are some of the many topics of ancient philosophy revisited here.

Many reviews have been written for the book in the world’s major magazines. 

“[Foucault] has an alert and sensitive mind that can ignore the familiar surfaces of established intellectual codes and ask new questions…. [He] gives dramatic quality to the movement of culture,” the New York Review of Books wrote.

“Foucault is quite central to our sense of where we are,” the Nation commented.

“These lectures offer important insights into the evolution of the primary focus of Foucault’s later work – the relationship between power and knowledge,” Library Journal wrote.

“Ideas spark off nearly every page… The words may have been spoken in [the 1970s] but they seem as alive and relevant as if they had been written yesterday.” Bookforum said.

Foucault’s theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions.

Though often cited as a structuralist and postmodernist, Foucault rejected these labels. His thought has influenced academics, especially those working in communication studies, anthropology, psychology, sociology, criminology, cultural studies, literary theory, feminism, Marxism and critical theory.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of Michel Foucault’s book “The Government of Self and Others”.

MMS/YAW