David Webb reveals the extent to which Foucault's approach to language in The Archaeology of Knowledge was influenced by the mathematical sciences, adopting a mode of thought indebted to thinkers in the scientific and epistemological traditions such as Cavailles and Serres. By aligning his thought with the challenge to Kantian philosophy from mathematics and science in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he shows how Foucault established his own perspective on the future of critical philosophy.