Foucault’s Apophasis : beyond modernity, the real

My usual first line of defence when accusations of ‘postmodernism’ are levelled at Foucault is pedantic: there is no philosophical ‘postmodernism’ (with the possible exception of Jean-François Lyotard’s thought), and no one who knows what they are talking about suggests Foucault is a “postmodernist.” He himself ultimately rejected any possibility of a “postmodern” period or attitude, averring instead that he was actually a partisan of the modern, Enlightenment critical attitude.0F1 I must admit though that this dodge is a little disingenuous on my part. After all, I am well aware what people mean when they invoke ‘postmodernism’ in relation to philosophy. They mean, effectively, a total relativism, one which holds that not only our values but all kinds of truth are historically relative. Foucault’s rejection of the label was made at a time when it was only inchoately applied, so he did not really rebut such accusations as they are made today.