This chapter examines the practice of frank speech or candid criticism, the principal educational method of late Epicurean schools and a major tool of moral and psychological therapy. The chapter is divided into four sections, corresponding to the following topics: first, the nature, scope, kinds, and circumstances of application of parrhēsia; second, the characters of the students and their positive or negative reactions to parrhesiastic criticism; third, the dispositions of the teachers and the ways in which these dispositions affect the use of frank speech; and fourth, the confessional and corrective practices applied at every level of hierarchy of the Epicurean school, and especially among the sages. Philodemus' discussion of these topics presents both historical and theoretical interest. It gives a fairly detailed idea of life in an Epicurean school in Zeno's and Philodemus' times, the interchange between teachers and students, and the methods used for the assimilation of the Epicurean values and way of life. On Frank Speech also advances challenging views about central problems of philosophical psychology and the philosophy of education.
Keywords: Epicurean schools, candid criticism, Philodemus, parrhēsia, Zeno, On Frank Speech