ATITUDE CRÍTICA E PRÁTICAS DE LIBERDADE: AUFKLÄRUNG E PARRESIA EM MICHEL FOUCAULT

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the relationship between the critical attitude and practices of freedom in the thought of Michel Foucault, with an emphasis on his problematization of contemporary forms of subjectivation. Drawing on the notion of Aufklärung, understood as a critical stance toward forms of government and power, and on parrhesia — conceived as an ethical-political practice of truth-telling — it analyzes how the subject may resist the excessive conduct of conduct within modern regimes of governmentality. In this context, the study examines the articulation between critical attitude, governmentality, and the liberal conception of freedom, highlighting critique as a mode of resistance. It further explores Foucault’s reflections on parrhesia in relation to the notions of care of the self and the government of self and others, as well as to the interpretation of ancient philosophy through the lens of parrhesiastic practice. Finally, by bringing together the meanings of Aufklärung and parrhesia, the dissertation seeks to understand the role of philosophy as a critical attitude and as a practice of interrogating the present. By sustaining this articulation, it argues that critique does not uncover an inner essence, but rather inaugurates an ongoing process of self-constitution, thereby contributing both to the deepening of debates on Foucault’s philosophy and to reflections on the possibilities for reinventing modes of existence in the contemporary world.