Postscript on Insignificance: Dialogues with Cornelius Castoriadis

by Cornelius Castoriadis, John V. Garner

Cornelius Castoriadis (1922-1997) was a philosopher, social critic, political activist, practicing psychoanalyst and professional economist. His work is widely recognized as one of the most singular and important contributions to twentieth-century thought.

In this collection of interviews, Castoriadis discusses some of his most important ideas with leading figures in the disciplines that play such a crucial part in his philosophical poetry, psychoanalysis, biology and mathematics. Available in English for the first time, these interviews provide a concise and accessible introduction to his work as a whole, allowing him to draw on the astounding breadth of his knowledge (ranging from political theory and sociology to ontology and the philosophy of science). They also render Castoriadis' cutting, polemical and entertaining style while displaying the originality and clarity of his primary concepts. Intellectually provoking, this timely collection shows how Castoriadis' polemics are sharp and riveting, his conceptual manoeuvres rigorous and original, and his passion inspiring. This is an excellent introduction to one of Europe's most important intellectuals.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

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).

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great read, and was easy to follow as Castoriadis was just speaking and not submerging his ideas beneath mountains of convoluted impenetrable prose.

My favorite is Chapter 5; dialogue with the Fields Medal winning mathematician Alain Connes, fascinating stuff.

Connes: Now, take the question of integration with the interior of the reality of the physical universe that we know about, that of the big bang, of the temporality that characterizes us and that characterizes the universe we live in. And by working on this problem, by discussing it with physicists I ended up more or less at the conclusion that the flowing of time has nothing to do with a coordinate in space-time, has nothing to do with this somewhat naive model that we have of space-time and of physics, but, in fact, it had something to do with thermodynamics. In a paradoxical, provocative way, I will say that if time passes, it is because we are bathing in 3° Kelvin rays, this fossil ray that stems from the big bang. For me, time passes because we are incapable of experiencing [connaître] the microscopic distributions of what is happening in the universe that surrounds us, and because this lack of information, this kind of macroscopic perception that we have of it, makes it such that gradually our body is destroyed, our genetic precision erodes. And in order to struggle against it, we are disposed of only this discrete phenomenon, which is the transmission of life, the transmission to other generations of this sort of bible contained in our genetic information, which, because it is discrete and rigid, will be very difficult to diminish and, on the contrary, will be able to fight and thrive against this flowing of time about which we can do nothing because it is due to destruction, to friction, and to our incapacity to experience [connaître] all the details of the microscopic world that surrounds us.

[Micah · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a radical thinker, Castoriadis has some immense advantages over others, as he looks some cold realities in the face: that there is no revolutionary workers' movement, and no privileged class that could carry the weight of revolution on its shoulders; that as "material realities," communist societies and the Russian and Chinese regimes were a disaster that ruined the highest hopes for a classless society, making liberal capitalism look appealing. After 2008 it seems Marxism is making something of a comeback in intellectual circles, and the long decades of Marxism as totalitarian state ideology are conveniently forgotten.

Castoriadis' attempts to find a project of autonomy in "Greco-Western" culture look quixotic, even dangerous after all the theoretical decenterings that have taken place. His bold thesis that the period of creativity around 1800-1950 is over, and that we're living through an age of pure conformism and insignificance, seems a little exaggerated. Especially since in one interview, he's discussing politics with Octavio Paz in 1996 but neither one thinks to mention the Zapatistas. (Apparently Paz didn't like them. Castoriadis was an intellectual and spent a fair amount of time interacting with liberals.)

Perhaps anticipating a bit of mathematical wishful thinking, Castoriadis claims that only 3% of society really has an interest in keeping things going. He gives us the tautology that the only way out of our contemporary nightmare is a mass outpouring of activity and creativity. Of course, from a militant point of view, we can't be satisfied with this - the question is how to best prepare and provoke such outpourings, since we can't simply wait for them.

[Julián]

Περιεχει 4 προσβασιμες συζητησεις (πολιτικη, ψυχολογια, βιολογια, μαθηματικα). Σχετικα με το τελευταιο κεφαλαιο η συζητηση ειναι παντοτε για σημαντικα πραγματα και μαλιστα πολυ πιο σχετικη σημερα με την αναλπτυξη της τεχνητη νοημουνης. Το δευτερο κεφαλαιο μου φανηκε το πιο δυσκολο-το πρωτο το πιο προσβασιμο. Σιγουρα ενα βιβλιο που θελει πολλες αναγνωσεις. Και πληρως εντυπωσιακο το τιτανιο ευρος αντιληψης και εκφρασης του Καστοριαδη σε τοσο διαφορετικα αντικειμενα.