It is unfortunate--beyond unfortunate, really, and bordering on the tragic--the degree to which posturing is substituted for thinking in the Academy. That Michel Foucault, for instance, and the "post-modernism" with which he is so frequently associated, would be set against Kant and the Enlightenment project with which he is associated, should cause thinking people absolutely no satisfaction; if anything, such oppositions should cause scholars embarrassment and pain. For these disputes represent nothing so much as a form of intellectual parricide. If the Enlightenment project was not constructed upon a scaffolding of rational critique (beginning, as with Kant, with a critique of reason itself), then there was no Enlightenment and, if there was no Enlightenment, then there can be no coherent assertion of a Counter-Enlightenment--the banner under which "post-modernists" mount their charge.
Every now and then a scholar, usually obscure, challenges the Received Tradition of Posturing Cant (often in the name of Kant), and attempts to set the record straight. Occidental College's Kory Schaff is one such scholar:
The Enlightenment has left us with "normative superstition," or a healthy form of skepticism about the justification of modern institutions and ideals. Along these lines, I adopt an interpretation of Foucault that diverges from the standard view. I argue that he shares with his detractors a common heritage of the "critical attitude," placing him squarely in line with Kant, Hegel and critical theory generally. If it is possible to view this critical attitude as an expression of Enlightenment-oriented views, then there are reasons to believe that his so-called postmodernism is nothing more than hyper-modernism [or what I like to call "modernism in high gear"--R.R.R.]. The general lines of this last argument have been made elsewhere, most notably in Robert Pippin's important work [Modernism As A Philosophical Problem], but there is a need to situate Foucault in the unfolding narrative of modernity, rather than label him a hostile opponent to it... [Schaff, Human Studies 25: 323-332, 2002].
In my own view, the "need" for revising the "narrative of modernity" as it unfolds in the hands of the most egregious of Posturers arises from the fact that the world is on fire; this is no time for intelligent people to be at one another's throats, settling scores that, when all is reduced to smoldering ash, amount to nothing. There is much work to be done by the intellectual fire brigades. Let us roll up our collective sleeves, each grab a bucket, and get to work.
