Abstract
This essay discusses, in light of the attack on the Cataplan in Paris, the nature of laughter and the importance and limits of parrhesia or speaking frankly and irreverently in public, of ridicule and caricature, and the insult. First, it situates parrhesia within the Greek cynical tradition, and defends that the right to speak freely is absolute, included in the tradition of reason. Free speech and tolerating it is an important exercise in acquiring a democratic habit. This presupposes, though, that the speaker does not take himself seriously, and parrhesia fails when the object of ridicule is merely offended. Secondly: 'freedom of opinion' differs fundamentally from 'artistic freedom', since a work of art is not a 'message' and does not express an opinion. One cannot legitimize stupid political action as 'art'.
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