Much has been written about the lack of foundations for the critical method. In keeping with its original purpose, however, critical theory requires foundations very different from those demanded by traditional theory. This chapter begins by highlighting the transformative project of critical theory and the preconditions for privileging this kind of interpretation. Recent trends toward the metaphysics of "recognition" or insistence upon the "pragmatic universals' of language need to make way for a concern with uncovering the conflict-ridden constitution of the historical totality, or what Marx termed the "ensemble of social relations," and how any transformative project rests on illuminating the ways in which freedom is linked with necessity.