In "A philosophical shock: Foucault reading Nietzsche, reading Heidegger," Babette Babich argues that any reading of Foucault must incorporate readings of both Nietzsche and (a "very French") Heidegger, rather than one at the expense of the other. The meanders of this essay take us through Nietzsche and Heidegger via an analysis of The Birth of the Clinic and reflections on philosophy of science to make the case. Remaining with Heidegger, later in the volume Santiago Zabala examines Foucault's influence on the living Italian philosopher Vattimo. Foucault's implicitly Heideggerian ontology is made explicit in Vattimo's philosophy, Zabala argues. Foucault's "ontology of actuality" (or "historical ontology of ourselves") is his rejection of transcendental critique in favour of a historically situated analysis of the conditions of possibility of human being. This move, which engages Kant's legacy while rejecting key aspects of his thought, has been key for Vattimo. The latter's "weak thought" abandons "philosophy's traditional claim to global descriptions of the world because after those masters' demystifications . . . thought is much more aware of its own restrictions, limits, and boundaries". Zabala goes on to make the connection between Vattimo's referencing of Foucault's ontology and Heidegger's destruction of metaphysics and his hermeneutic alternative.

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