Between Nietzsche and Kant: Michel Foucault's reading of 'What is enlightenment?'

• Autores: Maurizio Passerin D'Entrèves
• Localización: History of political thought, ISSN 0143-781X, Vol. 20, Nº 2, 1999, págs. 337-356
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This essay examines Foucault's stance towards the Enlightenment as formulated in three works he published in the last decade of his life. These works represent a partial modification of Foucault's attitude to the Enlightenment, rather than the dramatic shift claimed by some commentators. In order to substantiate this claim, the essay provides a reconstruction and critical assessment of three articles Foucault devoted to Kant and the Enlightenment, namely, �Qu'est-ce que la critique?� (1978), �Kant on Enlightenment and Revolution� (1983), and �What is Enlightenment?� (1984). It argues that Foucault's reformulation of Enlightenment ideals in terms of an ethos of transgression and an aesthetic of self-fashioning is much closer to Nietzsche's vision of a transvaluation of values than to Kant's notion of maturity and responsibility (Mundigkeit).