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Deleuze, there is a “furtive and explosive moment” within the Kantian problematic that deserves
our admiration and consideration (DR, 58). How is it possible to differentiate the side of the
Kantian problematic that Deleuze loves from the side that he hates?
Foucault, in an essay that Deleuze cites favorably (WP, 112-13), answers this question
with a provocative thesis.
The thread that may connect us with the Enlightenment is not faithfulness to
doctrinal elements, but rather the permanent reactivation of an attitude – that is, of
a philosophical ethos that could be described as a permanent critique of our
historical era.
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Foucault’s thesis, I think, provides an excellent framework to understand Deleuze’s complex
relationship to the Kantian problematic. On the one hand, Deleuze criticizes fiercely Kant’s
speculative and moral doctrines. Deleuze does not endorse transcendental idealism or the
categorical imperative. Deleuze does not retain Kant’s definitions for the Kantian concepts that
he uses. On the other hand, Deleuze believes that a tremendous event in philosophy happens with
the idea of critique. Deleuze, like Nietzsche, embraces the critical ethos even as – especially as –
he rejects Kant’s doctrines.
If one can still be a … Kantian today, it is because one is justified in thinking that
[his] concepts can be reactivated in our problems and inspire those concepts that
need to be created. What is the best way to follow the great philosophers? Is it to
repeat what they said or to do what they did, that is, create concepts for problems
that necessarily change? (WP, 28)
The Kantian ethos inspires Deleuze to be untimely. The Kantian ethos energizes Deleuze to
destroy old concepts and to create new ones. Deleuze, by thinking for himself courageously, is
Kantian.
This thesis, I contend, presses us to redraw a standard map of contemporary political
theory. Many theorists today police the border between the Enlightenment and the counter-
Enlightenment. Kant scholars such as Paul Guyer and Allen Wood seek to preserve the
Convention