The Right to Laziness

Abstract

“The Right to Laziness” explores the conceptual potential of the notion of the paresse as featured in the contemporary French philosophy, particularly in the ethical thought of Emmanuel Levinas and the theory of neutrality by Roland Barthes. I demonstrate how the concept of the paresse serves as a metaphor-concept for denoting a specific philosophical position of the dissensus or parrhēsia, which, according to Michel Foucault, is the only political position of protest available from within the discourse of philosophy.