The Socratic Parrhesiast As A Social Actor: Towards A More Practical Communications Category

Abstract

The field of communication has steadily increased the range of concepts and categories at its disposal for describing and analyzing its subject matter. However, in one area it has made little progress in developing an analytical repertoire: that of the actual communicator as a social type. The purpose of this thesis is to help rectify this situation by developing a workable concept of the communicator as parrhesiast. In 399 B.C.E. Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods which the city believed in. In this same year, he was found guilty and put to death. With reference to the work of Michel Foucault, this thesis will provide a framework for identifying the parrhesiast using Plato's Socrates as the example.