ABSTRACT
The place of publication was in a dossier of articles edited for the Magazine litteraire by Michel Foucault’s former assistant Francois Ewald, on the occasion of the appearance of the two further volumes of Foucault’s History of Sexuality. Foucault’s own developments on Immanuel Kant’s theme share this double focus, even if the meaning of each, of their connection, and of the respective resonances of Kant’s originating insights are altered – and this not only or mainly through an effect of ironic distancing, but with a sense of tellingly apposite recurrence. Kant’s own answers to his question about Enlightenment command Foucault’s attentive interest and respect, but it is in the question itself that Foucault finds the most precious clue for his own thinking. The relationship between the practice of genealogy and the question of Enlightenment has of course always been charged with polemic.
