ABSTRACT
Foucault significantly advances the case for a conception of rational critique conducive to facilitating the transformative advancement of understanding. In reviewing the trajectory of his life's work, Foucault affirms that his critical studies have been defined by a commitment to 'the endeavour to know to what extent it might be possible to think differently, instead of legitimating what is already known'. In valorizing his distinctively problematizing mode of critique, Foucault explicitly defines it as dedicated to the challenge of thinking differently, to the 'work of altering one's own thought and that of others'. Notwithstanding its undeniable merits in terms of provoking people to think differently, Foucault's work has been dogged from early on by recurring criticisms of its critical resources and corresponding doubts about his ability to carry through on its envisaged aims. In the first instance, in light of the arguments there can be little doubt about the extent of Foucault's commitment to a transformative conception of inquiry.
