ABSTRACT
Despite their substantive differences, Marx, Foucault, and Habermas have important similarities as critical theorists, as writers who analyze history and society in order to criticize the prevailing social order, to further enlightenment and critical consciousness, and thereby to help bring about political change. All three break with the positivist goal of value-free theory by politicizing their work, by linking it to specific critical and political goals with liberatory intent. Even Foucault, heralder of the death of Man and slayer of utopian visions, came to adopt a discourse of freedom and liberty in order to speak more coherently about the raison d’être of the political resistance that he sought to promote.
