This study presents the theoretical apparatus of Foucaultâs early historical analyses as a version of Kantian criticism. In an initial textual exposition the author attempts to distill a unified discursive practice from Kantâs theoretical writings arguing for Foucaultâs proximity to Kant on the basis of this reconstruction by showing that his studies are modeled on this way of thinking. By recasting it in this framework an unorthodox version of Foucaultâs work is generated one that is at odds with the tendency to emphasize a certain skepticism about the possibility of universal and necessary knowledge in his writings and to mistake it for irrationalism and a hostility to the practice of theory. By drawing attention to the structural parallel between Foucaultâs practice and Kantian criticism this study belies this picture. Language: English