There has been, over the last decades, a deep crisis in the models which, for a long time, have been central metaphors governing thought and research in the social sciences. The main symptom in this paradigmatic shift has been the increasing centrality of the 'discourse' approach in social theory. The philosophical implications of this shift have not, until now, been thoroughly explored. Ranging over the work of Heidegger and Gramsci, this philosophical exploration is not carried out by Angus as a purely analytical enterprise, but as a comprehensive attempt at rethinking the whole project of a critical philosophy.