Short Introduction to the Political Legacy of Castoriadis

The analysis offered by Cornelius Castoriadis remains, more than 20 years after his death, as relevant as ever before. This is so as he manages to detect with high accuracy the problems that still surround us and the ongoing crisis of insignificance. From the beginning of his writings he reveals the inherent problems of bureaucracy, the logic of political representation, the consumerist culture and the capitalist paradigm of unlimited economic growth. This criticism of his remains evidently abreast with our time.

The project of autonomy, which Castoriadis saw as a possible alternative, forms the foundational basis of struggles towards a true democratic and ecological society. In his contributions to our comprehension of the dynamics between the individual and the polis, he exhumed insights about the psychosocial landscape modulated by direct democracy.

This political legacy is accurately, sensitively, courageously, and with scholarly clarity brought to us in the following pages by Yavor Tarinski. This book is not simply a tribute to the work of one great philosopher, but a call to action – just as what Castoriadis’s philosophy always was.