The Romantic Realism of Michel Foucault The Scientific Temptation

B eatrice H an has argued that the theories of subjection (determinism: structure) and subjectivation (freedom: agency) are the “the blind spot[s] of Foucault's work.” Furthermore, she continues, as historical and transcendental theories, respectively, Foucault left them in a state of irresolvable conflict. In the S cientific T emptation I have shown that, as a practicing researcher, F oucault encourages us to situate the theories of the subject in the context of his un‐thematized search for a metaphysics of realism, the purpose of which was to ground his complementary reach for a possibility of naturalism. In Returning to K ant I now argue that it is this fundamental feature of “ F oucault's F oucault” that drives his returns to K ant, the purpose of which was to resolve the conflicting theories of the subject and thereby solve his G iddensian problem of structure and creativity. Locating the returns and their purpose in the context of my own arguments for the recovery of human agency, I argue that F oucault's attempts to solve his G iddensian problem led to two unfortunate solutions. In the first return, his resort to B audelaire's aesthetic subject is a regression to a pre‐noumenal conception of the K antian subject. With the second return, the reinstatement of the K antian subject as causally empowered, minus the noumenalism, is nothing more than a reclamation of K ant's conception. I argue that only a reconstruction of F oucault's scientific realism permits us to understand that he could have moved beyond mere reclamation to the actual recovery of human agency.