Book Description
Cornelius Castoriadis is a fascinating figure, not only because of his personal and intellectual background, but because of the extraordinary breadth of his interests and his ability to play the brilliant intellectual jester - all characteristics in abundant evidence in this collection of essays. In them, Castoriadis goes to the heart of deep philosophical issues raised but not answered by modern thought.

The book presents his concerns with the development of analytical theories of psychology, language, and politics, all commonly rooted in the social and historical aspects of human creativity. It examines figures as diverse as Aristotle, Heidegger, Lacan, Marx, and Merleau-Ponty.

Cornelius Castoriadis was for a long time a professional economist and is now a practicing psychoanalyst in Paris. He founded and became the main theoretician for the independent journal of the left, Socialisme ou Barbarie. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
These remarkable essays include Cornelius Castoriadis's latest contributions to philosophy, political and social theory, classical studies, development theory, cultural criticism, science, and ecology. Examining the "co-birth" in ancient Greece of philosophy and politics, Castoriadis shows how the Greeks' radical questioning of established ideas and institutions gave rise to the "project of autonomy".The "end of philosophy" proclaimed by Postmodernism would mean the end of this project.That end is now hastened by the lethal expansion of technoscience, the waning of political and social conflict, and the resignation of intellectuals who blindly defend Western culture as it is or who merely denounce or "deconstruct" it as it has been. Discussing and criticizing Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Weber, Heidegger, and Habermas, the author of The Imaginary Institution of Society and Crossroads in the Labyrinth poses a radical challenge to our inherited philosophy. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
This is one of the most original and important works of contemporary European thought. First published in France in 1975, it is the major theoretical work of one of the foremost thinkers in Europe today.

Castoriadis offers a brilliant and far-reaching analysis of the unique character of the social-historical world and its relations to the individual, to language, and to nature. He argues that most traditional conceptions of society and history overlook the essential feature of the social-historical world, namely that this world is not articulated once and for all but is in each case the creation of the society concerned. In emphasizing the element of creativity, Castoriadis opens the way for rethinking political theory and practice in terms of the autonomous and explicit self-institution of society. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the most important thinkers of the 20th century
Castoriadis was born in 1922 in cosmopolitan Constantinople (now Istanbul)from Greek parents. He grew up in Athens in a cultivated and fertile social environment. Castoriadis belongs to the generation of Greek thinkers that left Greece (in 1945 because of the Greek civil war)and matured in Europe (Axelos, Kranaki, Papaioannou etc.).The imaginary istitution of society is his landmark work. In this work he covers several subjects (marxism, revolutionary theory, social imaginary and the individual..).A few words from this work will show the depthand clarity of his thought: "Is my desire infantile? But it is the situation we live in infantile. That the life is given to us, the law is given to us. In an infantile situation life is given for nothing;and the law is given without anything (sans rien), without a possible discussion. But what I want is the opposite: I want to live my life and if possible to give life .....The person who is in an infantile level is the person who is apolitical and conformist...the person who replaces the private father with the social anonymous father... " ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Proceso, published by CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V. on January 18, 1998. The length of the article is 881 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Se requirió valor.... (biografía sobre el fallecido intelectual griego Cornelius Castoriadis)(TT: Courage was required) (TA: biography of late Greek intellectual Cornelius Castoriadis)
Author: Carlos Castillo Peraza
Publication: Proceso (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 18, 1998
Publisher: CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V.
Issue: n1107Page: p73(1)

Article Type: Biography

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Proceso, published by CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V. on January 18, 1998. The length of the article is 1340 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Un meteco llamado Castoriadis. (Cornelius Castoriadis, fallecido intelectual griego)(TT: A foreigner called Castoriadis) (TA: Cornelius Castoriadis, late Greek intellectual)
Author: Enrique Semo
Publication: Proceso (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 18, 1998
Publisher: CISA Comunicacion e Informacion, S.A. de C.V.
Issue: n1107Page: p44(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description