parrhesia
< post-classical Latin parrhesia outspokenness, frankness (a636 in Isidore; in classical Latin as a Greek word) < ancient Greek παρρησία < παν- pan- comb. form + ῥῆσις speech (see rhesis n.) + ‑ία‑ia suffix1.
“Parrhesia, N., Etymology.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/8040384192.
rhesis
< ancient Greek ῥῆσις word, speech < an ablaut variant of the base of ancient Greek (Epic and Ionic) ἐρέω (earlier ϝερέω; Attic ἐρῶ) I shall say (see word n.) + ‑σις ‑sis suffix. Compare post-classical Latin rhesis (also resis) rhetoric (from 12th cent. in British sources).
“Rhesis, N., Etymology.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3202252480.
“To hide nothing and say what is true is to practice parrhesia. Parrhesia is therefore ‘telling all,’ but tied to the truth: telling the whole truth, hiding nothing of the truth, telling the truth without hiding it behind anything.”
The Courage of Truth (The Government of Self and Others II) (First lecture, 1 February 1984), p. 10 foucault.info
The oft-stated aim of AGI is to speak the truth, to align its selves to the truth as parrhesia would appear to demand. The familiar narrative of western philosophy stages the direct plainness of parrhesia against the art of rhetoric. And yet, rhetoric exists, in part, because it is dangerous to speak plainly before the King as the parrhesiastes must.
The Parrhesia Media Lab is an investigation of AGI’s capacities as a parrhesiastes.
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