Cornelius Castoriadis’s Followers (169)

Cornelius Castoriadis

Born

in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire

March 11, 1922

Died

December 26, 1997

Genre

Philosophy, Psychology

Influences

Immanuel Kant ...more

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Cornelius Castoriadis (Greek: Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης) was a Greek philosopher, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group.

Edgar Morin proposed that Castoriadis' work will be remembered for its remarkable continuity and coherence as well as for its extraordinary breadth which was "encyclopaedic" in the original Greek sense, 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 mathematics, physics, biology, anthropology, psychoanalysis, linguistics, society, economics, politics, philosophy, and art.

One of Castoriadis' many impor Cornelius Castoriadis (Greek: Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης) was a Greek philosopher, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group.

Edgar Morin proposed that Castoriadis' work will be remembered for its remarkable continuity and coherence as well as for its extraordinary breadth which was "encyclopaedic" in the original Greek sense, 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 mathematics, physics, biology, anthropology, psychoanalysis, linguistics, society, economics, politics, philosophy, and art.

One of Castoriadis' 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.”

Castoriadis used traditional terms as much as possible, though consistently redefining them. Further, some of his terminology changed throughout the later part of his career, with the terms gaining greater consistency but breaking from their traditional meaning (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.

Castoriadis has influenced European (especially continental) thought in important ways. His interventions in sociological and political theory have resulted in some of the most well-known writing to emerge from the continent (especially in the figure of Jürgen Habermas, who often can be seen to be writing against Castoriadis). Hans Joas published a number of articles in American journals in order to highlight the importance of Castoriadis' work to a North American sociological audience, and the enduring importance of Johann P. Arnason, both for his critical engagement with Castoriadis' thought, but also for his sustained efforts to introduce Castoriadis' thought to the English speaking public (especially during his editorship of the journal Thesis Eleven) must also be noted. In the last few years, there has been growing interest in Castoriadis’s thought, including the publication of two monographs authored by Arnason's former students: Jeff Klooger's Castoriadis: Psyche, Society, Autonomy (Brill), and Suzi Adams's Castoriadis's Ontology: Being and Creation (Fordham University Press). ...more

Combine Editions
Cornelius Castoriadis’s books

Average rating: 4.28 · 1,741 ratings · 86 reviews · 170 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Imaginary Institution of Society 4.29 avg rating — 298 ratings — published 1975 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Η άνοδος της ασημαντότητας by Cornelius Castoriadis, Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης, Κώστας Κουρεμένος (Translator) 4.40 avg rating — 181 ratings — published 1996 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ἡ ἀρχαία ἑλληνική δημοκρατία καί ἡ σημασία της γιά μᾶς σήμερα by Cornelius Castoriadis, Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης 4.44 avg rating — 131 ratings — published 1986	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Η ελληνική ιδιαιτερότητα: Από τον Όμηρο στον Ηράκλειτο by Cornelius Castoriadis, Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης, Ξενοφών Α. Γιαταγάνας (Translator) 4.51 avg rating — 92 ratings — published 2004 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	World in Fragments: Writings on Politics, Society, Psychoanalysis, and the Imagination by Cornelius Castoriadis, David Ames Curtis (Translator) 4.41 avg rating — 74 ratings — published 1990 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Postscript on Insignificance: Dialogues with Cornelius Castoriadis 3.91 avg rating — 70 ratings — published 1998 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Η δυνατότητα μιας αυτόνομης κοινωνίας by Cornelius Castoriadis, Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης 4.20 avg rating — 64 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Το επαναστατικό πρόβλημα σήμερα by Cornelius Castoriadis, Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης 4.28 avg rating — 54 ratings — published 1977 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Είμαστε υπεύθυνοι για την ιστορία μας by Cornelius Castoriadis, Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης, Τέτα Παπαδοπούλου (Translator) 4.25 avg rating — 51 ratings — published 2000	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Crossroads in the labyrinth 4.41 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 1999 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Cornelius Castoriadis…

Series by Cornelius Castoriadis

Ce qui fait la Grèce (3 books)
by

Cornelius Castoriadis,

Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης,

Ζωή Καστοριάδη (Translator)

4.58 avg rating — 135 ratings

Quotes by Cornelius Castoriadis (?)

“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)”
― Cornelius Castoriadis, The Imaginary Institution of Society

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“Reification, the essential tendency of capitalism, can never be wholly realized. If it were, if the system were actually able to change individuals into things moved only by economic “forces,” it would collapse not in the long run, but immediately. The struggle of people against reification is, just as much as the tendency towards reification, the condition for the functioning of capitalism. Capitalism can function only by continually drawing upon the genuinely human activity of those subject to it, while at the same time trying to level and dehumanize them as much as possible.”
― Cornelius Castoriadis, The Imaginary Institution of Society

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“Σε μια πρώτη προσέγγιση,ο σημερινός δυτικός άνθρωπος -συμπεριλαμβανομένου και του νεοέλληνα- είναι ένα άτομο περιορισμένο στην καθαρά ιδιωτική του σφαίρα, ενδιαφέρεται μόνον για το βιοτικό του επίπεδο. Προσπαθεί με τα διάφορα καταναλωτικά «αγαθά» να συγκαλύψει την έλλειψη κάθε νοήματος αναφορικά με τη ζωή και τη θνητότητα του. Χειραγωγείται από τους δήθεν πολιτικούς ή είναι τόσο αποκαρδιωμένος από την πολιτική κατάσταση, ώστε απέχει. Αποχαυνώνεται από τα μέσα μαζικής επικοίνωνίας. Χαζεύει τα σήριαλ και χάφτει, κατά το μάλλονή ήττον, αυτά που του σερβίρουν ως «νέα» οι τηλεοπτικοί συνάδελφοι σας. Η σημερινή κοινωνία είναι μια κοινωνία τηλεκατανάλωσης με διπλή έννοια.”
― Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης, Είμαστε υπεύθυνοι για την ιστορία μας

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