What We Talk About When We Talk About Critique offers a textually and visually richly illustrated historical-philosophical perspective on the status and role of a key, but by no means unambiguous concept. Expositions and explanations of the historical content and position of criticism, however, are accompanied by testimonies of contemporary dismantling and re-compositions of philosophy, with regard to the very understanding of criticism and the author’s efforts to foster prudent orientation in this field. According to this interpretation, the guiding form of elaboration and survival of the critical attitude with regard to its (d)evolution is but one, originally Romantic, understanding of criticism, tested in modified variants by its successors. It is an understanding that is fully aware of the fragile construction and methodological inapplicability of critique, its contradictory position towards the critic, yet would nevertheless remain loyal to, and loyal through, the critical gesture of self-reflectiveness.