This article aims to consider how the history of philosophy is being made, mainly how the Enlightenment’s history is being told. To this end, it analyses a recent book by Antony Pagden to clarify a practice that seems to be frequent in the historiography of this cultural and philosophical movement of the 18th century: that of its political use. The work is divided into two parts: first, there is an academic critique, concentrating on how Pagden constructs his story of the (...) Enlightenment. Then, a political exegesis is carried out to clarify what purposes the author seems to have pursued at the time of publication of his work. In the conclusion, finally, a series of considerations of a metaphilosophical nature are made. (shrink)