The article addresses the form of conceptualization of modernity in the philosophy of M. Fou-cault. Having chosen as a starting point the opposition of the metaphysics of actuality and the anthropology of modernity proposed by V. Descombes, the author suggests considering the contradiction inherent in Foucault’s work as an antinomy of criticism and ontology. The dilemma of the Foucauldian reading of Kant’s discourse on modernity comes down to the fact that either modernity is a concept and acts as an object of criticism and epistemology, or it is a moment of universal history, in the center of which the subject is placed, and then modernity is an object of existential analysis and philosophy of history. The author demonstrates that the Foucauldian attitude to the Kantian concept of modernity can be considered with equal success both in the ontological and epistemological plans. The authors put forward a number of theses: 1) an appeal to the theme of modernity is constitutive of M. Foucault’s philosophy and allows him to formulate a number of productive ideas that determine the nature of his work; 2) the meaning and significance of the term “modernity” in Foucault’s work is Kantian in nature and is associated with a specific modification of intellectual culture; 3) in terms of method, the Foucauldian perception of modernity is eclectic in nature and reveals the influ-ence of Baudelaire, Sartre, Heidegger, and this influence can be sporadic; 4) the concept of modernity in Foucault’s work is aestheticized, thanks to which it receives an original interpre-tation and provides Foucault himself with conditional immunity from accusations of reviving the metaphysics of the Hegelian type; 5) Foucault’s conceptualization of modernity is cultur-ally conditioned and correlates with tradition, which makes it, in accordance with R. Rorty’s definition, a form of rhetoric.