This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that an immanent critique of liberal epistemology leads to a re-examination of the question of the conditions of political legitimacy. It attempts to challenge the liberal democratic interpretation of the Enlightenment without advocating a return to metaphysical conceptions of the good or the establishment of a dictatorial order necessary to impose any political programme. The book seeks to provide the philosophical and political impetus for a relaunching of the Enlightenment project and the centrality of reason and law involved in that project. From the liberal democratic perspective, the ideals of the Enlightenment are thus best preserved through free institutions which do not attempt to impose a metaphysical and tyrannical vision of political legitimacy.