Foucault and the Question of Truth: Francesco Valagussa and Anita Romanello in Doppiozero

Doppiozero published an essay titled "Foucault: a che punto siamo con la verità?" on Thursday, 01/10/2026 at 12:15, authored by Francesco Valagussa and Anita Romanello. The text argues that despite all our efforts, we remain attached to the old image of truth. On one side, the essay states, there would be a knowledge capable of remaining fundamentally external to all social processes, its content being the true, a truth in and for itself, without historical inscription in the real. On the other side stands the pure subject, already fully formed, universal and abstract, candid, immaculate — the authors dare say: white. Between the two lies the screen: social formations, economic instances, religious tensions, juridical and political institutions, and also beliefs and customs — all intermediaries more or less favorable, more or less transparent. The essay asks: if we were capable of freeing ourselves from these "unbearable mediators," if we could polish the screen until it became truly clear and limpid, then the universal subject would have access to the true. At that point, the authors write, we would have the power to make literally of everything — the sentence is cut off in the available source. The piece is a philosophical reflection on Michel Foucault's legacy regarding truth, mediation, and the subject, published on the Italian cultural platform Doppiozero.