Cornelius Castoriadis (Greek: Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης) (March 11, 1922-December 26, 1997) was a Greek-French philosopher, economist and psychoanalyst. Author of the The Imaginary Institution of the Society, co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group and 'philosopher of autonomy'.^[1] The 20th century brought with it upheavals that produced a series of conflicting developments within philosophy over the basis of knowledge and the validity of various absolutes. ... is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the city before the Fall of Constantinople (1453). ... Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire is direct consequence of the World War I with the Ottomans involvement in the Middle Eastern theatre. ... is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... This article is about the capital of France. ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why (or even if) they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what... Psychological science redirects here. ... Today psychoanalysis comprises several interlocking theories concerning the functioning of the mind. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... Look up autonomy, autonomous in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 – March 14, 1883) was a 19th century philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... Sigmund Freud (IPA: ), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Maurice Merleau-Ponty (March 14, 1908 – May 4, 1961) was a French phenomenologist philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl. ... Jacques-Marie-Émile Lacan (French IPA: ) (April 13, 1901 – September 9, 1981) was a French psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and doctor, who made prominent contributions to the psychoanalytic movement. ... Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Ash Wednesday 2004 at Biberach/Riss Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit (born Montauban, France, April 4, 1945) is a European politician and was a leader of the student protesters during the May 1968 riots in France. ... Maurice Brinton was the pen name under which Chris Pallis (1923-2005) wrote and translated for the British libertarian socialist group Solidarity from 1960 until the early 1980s. ... Claude Lefort was born in 1924 and was politically active by 1942 under the influence of his tutor, the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty (whose posthumous publications Lefort later edited). ... Takis Fotopoulos (born October 14, 1940) is a Greek political writer and former academic. ... is the 70th day of the year (71st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ... Alan Greenspan, former chairman, United States Federal Reserve. ... Psychoanalysis is the revelation of unconscious relations, in a systematic way through an associative process. ... Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism) was a French-based radical libertarian socialist group of the post-World War II period (the name comes from a phrase Rosa Luxembourg used in a 1916 essay, The Junius Pamphlet). It existed from 1948 until 1965. ... Look up autonomy, autonomous in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Life

Early life in Athens

Castoriadis was born in Constantinople and his family moved soon after to Athens. He developed an interest in politics after he came into contact with Marxist thought and philosophy at the age of 13. His first active involvement in politics occurred during the Metaxas regime (1937), when he joined the Athenian Communist Youth (Kommounistike Neolaia). In 1941 he joined the Communist Party (KKE) only to leave one year later in order to become an active Trotskyist. The latter action resulted in his persecution by both the Germans and the Communist Party. In 1944 he wrote his first essays on social science and Max Weber, which he published in a magazine named "Archive of Sociology and Ethics" (Archeion Koinoniologias kai Ethikes). During the violent episodes between ELAS and the Athenian people against the British troops and the Papandreou government in December 1944, Castoriadis heavily criticized the actions of the KKE. After earning degrees in political science, economics and law from the University of Athens, he sailed to Paris, where he remained permanently, to continue his studies under a scholarship offered by the French Institute. This article is about the city before the Fall of Constantinople (1453). ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... For other uses, see Politics (disambiguation). ... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... Ioannis Metaxas (Greek Ιωάννης Μεταξάς, April 12, 1871 – January 29, 1941) was a Greek General and the Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. ... KKE sticker The Communist Party of Greece, better known by its acronym KKE (Greek: Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας, Kommunistiko Komma Elladas), is the major communist party in Greece. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... For the politician, see Max Weber (politician). ... Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS) (Greek Εθνικός Λαϊκός Απελευθερωτικός Στράτος (ΕΛΑΣ) National Popular Liberation Army) was the military arm of the Ethniko Apeleftherotiko Metopo (ELAM) during the period of the Greek Resistance and the Greek Civil War. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political Science is the field concerning the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behaviour. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... For other uses, see Law (disambiguation). ... The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greek: Εθνικόν και Καποδιστριακόν Πανεπιστήμιον Αθηνών), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens, is the oldest university in the region of the eastern Mediterranean and has been in continuous operation since its establishment in 1837. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... The Institut de France (French Institute) is a French learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is probably the Académie française. ...

Paris and leftist activity

Once in Paris, Castoriadis joined the local Trotskyist and Communist groups, but broke with the former by 1948. He then joined Claude Lefort and others in founding the libertarian socialist group and the journal Socialisme ou Barbarie (1949-1966), which included Jean-François Lyotard and Guy Debord as members for a while, and profoundly influenced the French intellectual left. Castoriadis had links with the group around C.L.R. James until 1958. Also strongly influenced by Castoriadis and Socialisme ou Barbarie were the British group and journal Solidarity and Maurice Brinton. Claude Lefort was born in 1924 and was politically active by 1942 under the influence of his tutor, the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty (whose posthumous publications Lefort later edited). ... Libertarian socialism is a political philosophy dedicated to opposing coercive forms of authority and social hierarchy, in particular the institutions of capitalism and the state. ... Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism) was a French-based radical libertarian socialist group of the post-World War II period (the name comes from a phrase Rosa Luxembourg used in a 1916 essay, The Junius Pamphlet). It existed from 1948 until 1965. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Guy Ernest Debord (December 28, 1931, in Paris – November 30, 1994, in Champot) was a writer, film maker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International (SI). ... Left wing redirects here. ... Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901–19 May 1989) was a journalist, and a prominent socialist theorist and writer. ... Solidarity was a small libertarian socialist organisation and magazine of the same name in the United Kingdom. ... Maurice Brinton was the pen name under which Chris Pallis (1923-2005) wrote and translated for the British libertarian socialist group Solidarity from 1960 until the early 1980s. ...

Career as economist and distancing from Marxism

At the same time, he worked as an economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development until 1970, which was also the year when he obtained French citizenship. Consequently, his writings prior to that date were published pseudonymously, as Pierre Chaulieu, Paul Cardan, etc. Castoriadis was particularly influential in the turn of the intellectual left during the 1950s against the Soviet Union, because he argued that the Soviet Union was not a communist, but rather a bureaucratic state, which contrasted to Western powers mostly by virtue of its centralized power apparatus. His work in the OECD substantially helped his analyses. In the latter years of Socialisme ou Barbarie, Castoriadis came to reject the Marxist theories of economics and of history, especially in an essay on Le mouvement révolutionnaire sous le capitalisme moderne. Although he was active in the political movements of the 1960s, his interests shifted from direct political action and revolution towards seeking to understand the relationship of the human individual to social formations. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), (in French: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques; OCDE) is an international organisation of thirty countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ... Citizen redirects here. ... Note: Marxian is not restricted to Marxian economics, as it includes those inspired by Marxs works who do not identify with Marxism as a political ideology. ... Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), although Marx himself never used the term (he referred it as philosophical materialism, a term he used to distinguish it from what he called popular materialism). Historical...

Psychoanalysis

This led him towards more philosophical and psychoanalytic understandings of human social and political life and he trained as a psychoanalyst and began to practice in 1974. In his 1975 work, L'institution imaginaire de la société (Imaginary Institution of Society), and in Les carrefours du labyrinthe (Crossroads in the Labyrinth) published in 1978, Castoriadis began to develop his distinctive understanding of historical change as the emergence of irrecoverable otherness that must always be socially instituted and named to be recognized. Otherness emerges in part from the activity of the psyche itself. Creating external social institutions that give stable form to what Castoriadis terms the magma of social significations allows the psyche to create stable figures for the self, and to ignore the constant emergence of mental indeterminacy and alterity. In 1980, he joined the faculty of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. This page is a candidate to be copied to Wiktionary. ... The École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (French for School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences; EHESS) is a French institution for research and higher education, a Grand Établissement. ...

For Castoriadis, self-examination, in the Ancient Greek tradition could draw upon the resources of modern psychoanalysis. Autonomous individuals--the essence of an autonomous society--must continuously examine themselves and engage in critical reflexion. He writes:

...psychoanalysis can and should make a basic contribution to a politics of autonomy. For, each person's self-understanding is a necessary condition for autonomy. One cannot have an autonomous society that would fail to turn back upon itself, that would not interrogate itself about its motives, its reasons for acting, its deep-seated [profondes] tendencies. Considered in concrete terms, however, society doesn't exist outside the individuals making it up. The self-reflective activity of an autonomous society depends essentially upon the self-reflective activity of the humans who form that society.^[2]

Castoriadis was not calling for every individual to undergo psychoanalysis, per se. Rather, by reforming education and political systems, individuals would be increasingly capable of critical self- and social- reflexion. He offers: "if psychoanalytic practice has a political meaning, it is solely to the extent that it tries, as far as it possibly can, to render the individual autonomous, that is to say, lucid concerning her desire and concerning reality, and responsible for her acts: holding herself accountable for what she does."^[3]

Sovietologist

In his 1980 Facing The War text, he viewed that Russia had become the primary world military power. To sustain this, in the context of the visible economic inferiority of the Soviet Union in the civilian sector, he proposed that the society may no longer be dominated by the party-state bureaucracy but by a "stratocracy" - a separate and dominant military sector with expansionist designs on the world. He further argued that this meant there was no internal class dynamic which could lead to social revolution within Russian society and that change could only occur through foreign intervention. This led some people to suggest he had become a cold war apologist for the West. For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

Thought

One of Castoriadis's many important contributions to social theory was the idea that social change involves radical discontinuities that cannot be understood in terms of any determinate causes or presented as a sequence of events. Change emerges through the social imaginary without determinations, but in order to be socially recognized must be instituted as revolution. Any knowledge of society and social change “can exist only by referring to, or by positing singular entities…which figure and presentify social imaginary significations.” Imaginary refers to the system of values, institutions, laws, and symbols - in short the matrix of ideological meaning - correspondent to a particular social group upon which said society is constituted. ...

Concerning his political views, autonomy appears as a key theme in his early postwar writings. Not until his death did he stop elaborating on its meaning, applications, ramifications, and limits, and therefore he has been called the "Philosopher of Autonomy". He defined an Autonomous society in contrast to a Heteronomous one. While all societies make their own imaginaries (institutions, laws, traditions, beliefs and behaviors), autonomous societies are those that their members are aware of this fact, and explicitly self-institute (αυτο-νομούνται). In contrast, the members of heteronomous societies attribute their imaginaries to some extra-social authority (i.e. God, ancestors, historical necessity). Imaginary refers to the system of values, institutions, laws, and symbols - in short the matrix of ideological meaning - correspondent to a particular social group upon which said society is constituted. ... Imaginary refers to the system of values, institutions, laws, and symbols - in short the matrix of ideological meaning - correspondent to a particular social group upon which said society is constituted. ...

Castoriadis's work will be remembered for its remarkable continuity and coherence as well as for its extraordinary breadth.^{[original research?]} It was "encyclopaedic" in the original Greek sense, Morin noted, for it offered us a "paideia," or education, that brought full circle our cycle of otherwise compartmentalized knowledge in the arts and sciences. Castoriadis wrote essays on physics, biology, anthropology, psychoanalysis, linguistics, society, economics, politics, philosophy, and art, never claiming a spurious "expertise" conferred by specialization or losing sight of the overall picture. Edgar Morin is a French philosopher and sociobiologist who was born in Paris on July 8, 1921 under his original name Edgar Nahoum. ... To the ancient Greeks, Paideia (παιδεία) was the process of educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature. ...

The Ancient Greeks and the Modern West

Castoriadis writings delve at length into the philosophy and politics of Ancient Greece. For Castoriadis, it was these societies which innovated ideas about autonomy and democracy, and these societies which continue to provide insights into the present. He argues that, in the last two centuries, ideas about autonomy again come to the fore: "This extraordinary profusion reaches a sort of pinnacle during the two centuries stretching between 1750 and 1950. This is a very specific period because of the very great density of cultural creation but also because of its very strong subversiveness."^[4] The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. ...

Castoriadis sees a tension in the modern West between on the one hand the potentials for autonomy and creativity, and the proliferation of "open societies" and, on the other hand, the spirit-crushing force of capitalism. These are characterized as the capitalist imaginary and the creative imaginary:

I think that we are at a crossing in the roads of history, history in the grand sense. One road already appears clearly laid out, at least in its general orientation. That's the road of the loss of meaning, of the repetition of empty forms, of conformism, apathy, irresponsibility, and cynicism at the same time as it is that of the tightening grip of the capitalist imaginary of unlimited expansion of "rational mastery," pseudorational pseudomastery, of an unlimited expansion of consumption for the sake of consumption, that is to say, for nothing, and of a technoscience that has become autonomized along its path and that is evidently involved in the domination of this capitalist imaginary. ¶ The other road should be opened: it is not at all laid out. It can be opened only through a social and political awakening, a resurgence of the project of individual and collective autonomy, that is to say, of the will to freedom. This would require an awakening of the imagination and of the creative imaginary.^[5]

Major concepts

Castoriadis has influenced European (especially continental) thought in important ways. He remains a source of post-Lacanian psychiatric theory and practice, which is the dominant mode of psychoanalysis in France today. On the other hand, his interventions in sociological and political theory has resulted in some of the most well-known writing to emerge from the continent (especially in the figure of Jurgen Habermas, who often can be seen to be writing against Castoriadis).{citation} Sociologist Han Joas attempted in the early 1980s to bring Castoriadis' work and thought to an anglophone audience, as have others, with little success.{citation} Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (born June 18, 1929 in Düsseldorf, Germany) is a philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory. ...

Part of the problem which may prevent people from engaging with his thought lies in the great specificity he uses to redefine his terms. While he uses traditional terms as much as possible (this may be the result of a desire to avoid overwhelming the reader with neologisms), he consistently redefines these terms and invests them with very specific content. Further, some of his terminology changed throughout the later part of his career, with the general tendency that the terms took on a greater clarity and consistency, but more closely resembled neologisms. When reading Castoriadis, it is helpful to understand what he means by the terms he uses, since he does not redefine the terms in every piece where he employs them.

• Autonomy
• Heteronomy
• Magmas
• Alienation
• Ensemblist-Identitary Logic
• The Socio-Historical
• Praxis (Πράξις)
• Technique
• Imaginary
• Radical Imaginary
• Originary Psychic Monad
• Institution
• Teukhein (Τεύχειν)
• Legein (Λέγειν)

On December 26, 1997, he died from complications following heart surgery. is the 360th day of the year (361st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the band, see 1997 (band). ... Cardiac surgery is surgery on the heart, typically to correct congenital heart disease or the complications of ischaemic heart disease or valve problems caused by endocarditis. ...

Major publications

• The Castoriadis Reader (ed./trans.: David Ames Curtis) Blackwell Publisher, Oxford 1997. 470 pp. ISBN 1-55786-704-6. (pb.)
• World In Fragments. Writings on Politics, Society, Psychoanalysis, and the Imagination. (ed./trans.: David Ames Curtis) Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA 1997. 507 pp. ISBN 0-8047-2763-5.
• Political and Social Writings. Volume 1: 1946-1955. From the Critique of Bureaucracy to the Positive Content of Socialism. (ed./trans.: David Ames Curtis) University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1988. 348 pp.ISBN 0-8166-1617-5. (PSW, vol. 1)
• Political and Social Writings. Volume 2: 1955-1960. From the Workers' Struggle Against Bureaucracy to Revolution in the Age of Modern Capitalism. (ed./trans.: David Ames Curtis) University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1988. 363 pp. ISBN 0-8166-1619-1.
• Political and Social Writings. Volume 3: 1961-1979. Recommencing the Revolution: From Socialism to the Autonomous Society. (ed./trans.: David Ames Curtis) University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1993. 405 pp.ISBN 0-8166-2168-3.
• Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy. Essays in Political Philosophy. (ed. David Ames Curtis) Oxford University Press, New York/Oxford 1991. 306 pp. ISBN 0-19-506963-3.
• The Imaginary Institution of Society. (trans.:Kathleen Blamey) MIT Press, Cambridge 1998. 432 pp. ISBN 0-262-53155-0. (pb.)
• Crossroads in the Labyrinth. (trans.: M.H.Ryle/K.Soper) MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 1984. 345 pp.
• On Plato's Statesman. (trans.: David Ames Curtis) Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA 2002. 227 pp.
• Le Contenu du Socialisme. Paris 1979. (fr.) (in: PSW, vol.1)
• La Brèche: vingt ans après. (Réédition du livre de 1968 complété par de nouveaux textes). Paris 1988. (fr.)
• Figures of the Thinkable. (trans.: H. Arnold) Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA 2007. 304 pp.

Further reading

• Thesis Eleven (Journal), Special Issue 'Cornelius Castoriadis', Number 49, May 1997. Sage Publications, London. ISSN 0725-5136
• Maurice Brinton: For Workers' Power. Selected Wrintings. (ed. David Goodway) AK Press Edinburgh/Oakland 2004. ISBN 1-904859-07-0.

Maurice Brinton was the pen name under which Chris Pallis (1923-2005) wrote and translated for the British libertarian socialist group Solidarity from 1960 until the early 1980s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Quotes

• "His line clearly converged with that of anarchism, but although he made occasional references to the anarchists, like many former Marxists he had little respect for them, and in return they took little notice for him. This was probably a mistake, since many ... of his ideas are highly relevant to the work facing the anarchist movement in the contemporary world." Nicolas Walter, in: "Freedom newspaper Anarchist fortnightly", 07.02.1998.

• (Question: Are you a revolutionary?) Castoriadis: "Revolution does not mean torrents of blood, the taking of the Winter Palace, and so on. Revolution means a radical transformation of society's institutions. In this sense, I certainly am a revolutionary." (from "The Revolutionary Force of Ecology")

Anarchist redirects here. ... Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Nicolas Hardy Walter (November 22, 1934–March 7, 2000) was a British anarchist and atheist writer, speaker and activist. ... Cover of Freedom, dated 13th September 2003, showing the new cover design by Clifford Harper. ... For other uses, see Revolution (disambiguation). ... Located between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, the Winter Palace (Russian: Зимний Дворец) in Saint Petersburg, Russia was built between 1754 and 1762 as the winter residence of the Russian tsars. ...

Notes

References

www.castoriadis.org

External links

• Agora International - Cornelius Castoriadis Website. (Bibliographies in many languagues and the complete Bibliography of 'Socialisme ou Barbarie'.)
• L'Association Castoriadis, (Paris).
• Cornelius Castoriadis Archive at libcom.org
• About Cornelius Castoriadis, Agora International.
• An Introduction to Cornelius Castoriadis' Work by Fabio Ciaramelli, Journal of European Psychoanalysis #6, Winter 1998.
• Cornelius Castoriadis, 1922-1997, obituaries and profiles by Axel Honneth, Edgar Morin, and Joel Whitebook, Radical Philosophy, July/August 1998.
• Figures of the Thinkable. A large collection of Castoriadis' works.
• Cornelius Castoriadis 1922-1997 by the Anarchist Federation, libcom.org
• Obituary: Castoriadis and the democratic tradition by Takis Fotopoulos, Democracy & Nature", Vol. 4 No. 1.
• Cornelius Castoriadis, biography by John Barker, International Anarchist web pages.
• "Cornelius Castoriadis and the triumph of the will" by Alex Callinicos, Chapter 4.3 of Trotskyism, 1990.
• The Rising Tide of Insignificancy (The Big Sleep) Some collected writings of Castoriadis, 1979-1996.
• The Strange Afterlife of Cornelius Castoriadis by Scott McLemee, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 26, 2004.
• New books in English by Cornelius Castoriadis, anonymous translations of Carrefours du labyrinthe "offered to readers as a public service", notbored.org, 2003-2005.