Castoriadis blog

Tinos Symposium 2011

2009-12-11T23:00:00.005+01:00

We had announced a symposium in the network of Castoriadis studies in September 2010, at Tinos, Greece. In order to faciliate other initiatives, this event has been postponed to the spring 2011. More information will follow.

2009-09-20T02:59:00.003+02:00

NSU network group - the end and some new beginnings

2009-08-06T10:05:00.003+02:00

This blog started out as a forum for the network group Creation, Rationality and Autonomy in the academic network Nordic Summer University. This group has now come to an end, with a very successful summer session at Tyrifjord, Norway. The group was the biggest of all, counting 20 + persons from ca. 10 nationalities, presenting 13 papers - quite a feat, since the group has concentrated on just one philosopher over the past three years: Cornelius Castoriadis.

Now, in the aftermath of the past three years, many participants in the symposia and sessions wish to maintain the network in some - preferably more than one - form. In the short perspective, there will be one or anthologies published with some of the papers. The Norwegian think-tank Res Publica has expressed an interest in making one such publication, the NSU will hopefully provide the means for one more.

On the new Castoriadis Book

2009-05-21T14:33:00.003+02:00

If people find it hard to find the money to buy my new book on Castoriadis(which I can fully understand - it certainly is steep), but would be willing to buy a paperback edition of it, can I suggest that you send an email to Brill telling them that you would love to buy it if it were in paperback. That way they will know there is a demand for it. I am just afraid that if no one buys the hardback because of the price they won't do a paperback edition.

New Book On Castoriadis Published

2009-05-20T06:51:00.001+02:00

Dear Friends,

I wanted to let you all know that my book has now been published. I received my copies of the book today and it looks great. 'Castoriadis: Psyche, Society, Autonomy' (with a foreword by Dick Howard) can now be ordered from the Brill website , from Amazon , or any of a number of other sites, or through your friendly local bookseller. Please get yourself a copy (and ask your library to buy one too). I will be glad to receive any feedback from you once you have read it.

Jeff Klooger

Castoriadis, Foucault, Deleuze and Others?

2009-04-06T00:14:00.003+02:00

I have been invited to be a respondent to a paper that is to be presented at Congress in Ottawa, Canada. The session titled Foucault and the Sciences of the Soul. One of the papers is a comparison of Foucault and Castoriadis [2]. Although I'm hardly an expert on either Castoriadis or Foucault I have a much better grasp on the former and no clear idea how the two might relate.

However, I have been thinking about Castoriadis as a figure of 'contemporary French philosophy.' Generally, that term is meant to include Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, Lyotard.... As more people become aware of Castoriadis's work his name seems to be appearing in the lists of such figures, often improperly identified as a postmodernist or a poststructuralist. Do the readers of this blog believe that there is much, if any, common ground between Castoriadis and these theorists or others of the era? If so, who, which concepts or ideas, and why? Further, why were Castoriadis's few mentions of his contemporaries largely dismissive?[1]

My limited familiarity with Deleuze makes me believe that there are many conceptual crossovers with Castoriadis. Given that both Deleuze and Castoriadis moved at the fringes of the Lacanian movement and ultimately rejected Lacan would seem to be one important commonality. I recently asked David Curtis why Castoriadis never made reference to Deleuze, when it seemed he must be familiar with him. Curtis directed me to a footnote in the book On Plato's 'Statesman'. The footnote accompanies a remark in the translator's afterword (written by Curtis) about what was to become of Castoriadis's unpublished writings. Castoriadis said they were not to be published as he didn't want his unfinished works to become someone else's fashionable book. The footnote reads:

The name he cited, seemingly out of the blue, was Gilles Deleuze's. Only later did I form the hypothesis that Castoriadis may have felt that Deleuze/Guattari's book on capitalism and schizophrenia may have taken over, without attribution or the same depth of revolutionary purpose, his own ideas on the contradictory nature of capitalism, which simultaneously excludes worker's participation and solicits it.

I asked Curtis if he is familiar with Deleuze's work and if he thought this to be a fair belief on Castoriadis's part, if indeed it was his belief, given that this is a supposition by Curtis, and he notes he never followed up on Castoriadis's remark. Curtis provided another couple anecdotes that seemed to demonstrate that Castoriadis had little regard for Deleuze or Guattari.

Reading 'Movement of the Sixties,' I cannot help but notice the absence of Deleuze and Guattari from Castoriadis's assessment of how off-base more post-68 theorising about the month long uprising is. If there were any two thinkers who may have carried the mantle Pensée '68, it would seem to be them with their best-selling Anti-Oedipus, although they certainly weren't claiming that '68 somehow represented an individualist turn, which is the position that Castoriadis challenges in the article. I cannot help but think that one of the few thinkers acknowledged as having influenced the actions of '68 - although not under his own name, as he wasn't a citizen at the time - wouldn't be bitter that others would, after the fact, see their theories rise the charts, in part on an attempt to understand the event. I wouldn't blame Castoriadis if he were, but at the same time, I'm not prepared to psychoanalyse him.

If a suspicious attitude toward his contemporaries was one of Castoriadis's 'oedipuses,' then it's up to us to surpass them and determine if there are those among this group that may usefully inform Castoriadis and the project of autonomy, or who would be especially dismantled by having his concepts and analysis brought to bear on their theories. I'd like to hear the thoughts of others on this issue. I'm including the abstract for the paper I'm to respond to below (see [2]).

Thanks,
Troy

[1] Many of my friends make great use of Foucault, so I took much notice of the few times Castoriadis makes mention of him. He clearly did not think highly of the man. In 'State of the Subject Today' he lots him in with the structuralists, whom he takes apart (WIF, p. 144). In 'Movement of the Sixties,' he takes an unsubstantiated swipe at him: "Foucault did not hide his reactionary positions until 1968, although he spoke less, it is true, of the way in which he put them into practice during a students' strike in 1965 at Clermont-Ferrand" (WIP, p. 51). In 'The Retreat from Autonomy' Foucault feels the full weight of Castoriadis's derision for his claim that from Kant onward, philosophers makes no longitudinal value judgment, but merely thinks in "sagittal relation to their own actuality" (quoted in WIP, p. 34). As it is this exact notion of philosophy that Castoriadis is refuting in this essay, he clearly regards Foucault as an intellectual 'enemy.'

[2] This is the abstract for the paper. If you have any comments or things you think I should consider in my response, please email me at dtc[at]yorku.ca:
“Foucault with Castoriadis: transformative processes from ‘psyche’ to‘subjectivity’”

The paper will focus on Foucault’s analyses of processes of subjectivization and self-subjectivization, and will link these to Castoriadis’s analyses of the “social imaginary” and its relation to “psyche” (as the representative, affective, and intentional fluxes), “individuality,” and “subjectivity.”

Relying particularly on L’Herméneutique du Sujet and Le Courage de la Vérité: le Gouvernment de Soi et des Autres II, the paper will study Michel Foucault’s late focus on bios as a process of living constitutive of an indeterminate and constantly changing “self” subjectivized through discursive and non-discursive social practices—where the transcription of power relations reflects various forms of governmentality and different relations and effects—as well as through processes of self-subjectivization, such as those associated with parrhesia.

The possibility of an indeterminate “self” has been elaborated in similar ways by Cornelius Castoriadis, particularly in L’Institution Imaginaire de La Société and Sujet et Vérité Dans le Monde Social-Hisotrique. Castoriadis relies not on the “social imaginary,” but on (the ensidic representations of) legein (social saying or representing) and teukhein (social doing or practicing) to socialize, acculturate, and subjectivize “psyche”—from “radical imaginary” to “individual” then “subject.”

Both philosophers highlight a social and political ontology relying on multiplicity, becoming, and indeterminacy, and while they have different analyses, they both highlight something inherently irreducible in their ontology of (self-)transformation—where fluxes or processes constantly interact with contingencies becoming necessity. Their contribution to the “Sciences of the Soul” is first and foremost methodological: the methods, as well as the objects of study, of these sciences need to be able to account for processes in their singularity and multifarious forces and to study indeterminate sites of transformation.

Call for papers: The Modern Problematique - Transformations and Tensions, Openings and Closures

2009-04-02T15:01:00.013+02:00

THE NORDIC SUMMER UNIVERSITY'S SUMMER SESSION 2009
Tyrifjord, Norway July 19 - 26
Key note speakers: Peter Wagner and Steven Shaviro

Modernity: one or many?
Modernity has traditionally been thought as one phenomenon – a break with traditional society, or a development there from (cf. Durkheim, Habermas, Lévi-Strauss, Weber). Over the past decades, however, scholars have voiced concerns about this agreed unity. Modernity conceived as a unity is, in many ways, a Western idea, carrying the sigils of the hegemon. An alternative would be to regard modernity as a multiple, or as a successive phenomena (Eisenstadt, Arnason, Wagner). Modernities take diverse forms in both space and time.

What is modern society?
In order to discuss modernity, we need a conception of society. Cornelius Castoriadis has an original take on what a society his. To him, society is first and foremost described in terms of imaginary significations.

To understand a society, then, means to understand its social imaginary significations, and the meaning they embody. The central social imaginary significations in modernity are, to him, "rational mastery" and "autonomy". These significations contradict each other, but at the same time, provide support for each other. Socialization in Western societies, then, means to invest emotional energy – belief, meaning, secondary values – in these significations.

In response to the emergence of a modern society, a social philosophy and a social science arose, which aimed at understanding the ongoing transition from “traditional” to “modern” societ[b]y[/b] and the many social problems (anomie, alienation, disenchantment, inequality, exclusion, etc.) based in this groundbreaking social transformation. The distinction between “tradition” and “modernity” became fundamental. Many contemporary scholars, however, are convinced that such a distinction is not sufficient to capture the basic social conditions of the present. The distinction implicates that the last, major transformation of Western societies occurred more than a hundred years ago, and that social change since then is only about gradual transitions. This assumption - which has been very influential not only in academic thought, but also in politics and everyday life during the 20th century - sits under the heading of “modernization theory”. The idea is that that more and more institutions, individuals and communities are turning more and more modern; i.e. social change is unilaterally interpreted as the realization of modernity.

Contemporary sociologists now suggest that recent transformations of social institutions, and of cognitive and normative convictions, are so fundamental that the history of modern societies itself must be divided into different epochs.

One, two, many modernities
Distinctions between “early” and “late” (or “high”) modernity, modern and “postmodern” society, “first” and “second modernity”, “solid” and “liquid” modernity have become widespread (cf. Lyotard, Giddens, Sennett, Beck and Bauman).

Recent theories of “successive modernities” claim that there has been two epochs in the history modern societies, and that a third one is in the process of being established (Peter Wagner, Luc Boltanski/Eve Chiapello and Johann Arnason). Peter Wagner describes – in an ideal typical sense - three epochs of modernity: The first one is liberal-bourgeois in character and restricts modernity only to certain segments of the population. This epoch is replaced by a bureaucratic-administrative model, which is more inclusive. The third epoch, which Wagner mentions, is called an “extended liberal modernity”, but it remains undeveloped in his work. Others, like Beck, Bauman and Sennett, divides modernity in only two epochs, but describe certain aspects of the present epoch more in detail than Wagner. Chiapello and Boltanski speak about three “spirits of capitalism”. They do not focus on the institution of capitalism, but – relating back to Max Weber – on the spirit of capitalism. This means that justifications, critiques (social and artistic) and discourses of capitalism are central in their analysis of the transformation. Secondly, they conduct an analysis of discourses in order to capture this transformation. Management literature is their empirical object of research. A political theory of successive modernities can also be developed. Historically, T.H Marshall’s well-known theory of citizenship and its transformation can here be of some relevance. The transformation from civil rights to social rights captures an important part of the transition from a first to a second epoch of modern democracy. The concept “service democracy” has been used by others to capture this later epoch. The citizen turns into a client, while the state and administration - guided by experts - guarantee the constant supply of resources. Today, however, there are clear indications that service democracy is loosing legitimacy.

Society without meaning?
Since modernity's beginning, there has been a struggle for and tensions between the strive for autonomy and rational mastery. The situation today, however, seem more ambiguous than ever. In many spheres of social life we can notice a certain significational void, a state of limbo, where meaning no longer makes sense. In Castoriadis' view, two tendencies can be identified: A lack of investment in past significations (the tradition), and a lack of investment in new ones. Perhaps what we see today is a second crisis of modernity, where a third kind of modernity is developing, or we are finally leaving modernity and its significations alltogether.

Yet, there seems to be a certain contradiction between this diagnosis – generalized conformism and insignificance – and his former sociological thesis, which said that a society exists insofar and through collective investment in certain significations. And correspondingly, that a society ceases to exist as society the minute its members no longer believe in the core significations which hold that society together.

Does this mean that Westerners do not live in a society? Or is "insignificance" in itself a signification? A very strong, dominant one, which trumps all tendencies or attempts to muster political and social action? A cynicism that makes all effort and qualitative investments laughable?

Peter Wagner’s ground breaking work, A Sociology of Modernity, identified two main themes of modernity: liberty and discipline. His latest book, Modernity as Experience and Interpretation, explores the modern problematique throughout Western history. One implication of his perspective is that modernity is - are - phenomenons to be interpreted and problematized, in multiple ways.

The Nordic Summer University invites papers that explore these and related questions from various perspectives, like political philosophy, history, sociology, art and more.

Please send abstract to
ingerids2(a)yahoo.no

Literature:
Arnason, J. P. (1989) “The imaginary constitution of modernity”, in G Busino et al., Autonomie et transformation de la société Geneva: Dorz
Arnason, J. P. 2005. "Alternating Modernities: The Case of Czechoslovakia." European Journal of Social Theory 8:435-51
Boltanski, L. & Chiapello, É. (2005): The new spirit of capitalism. London: Verso.
Carleheden, M. 2006. "The transformation of our conduct of life: One aspect of the three epochs of Western modernity." Distinktion 55-75
Castoriadis, Cornelius (2007): Figures of the Thinkable. Stanford, Stanford University Press
Castoriadis, Cornelius (2005): Une société à la derive. Entretiens et débats. Paris, Seuil
Castoriadis (2004): Post-scriptum sur l’insignifiance. Entretiens avec Daniel Mermet. Paris, Éditions de l’aube
Castoriadis, Cornelius (1999): Dialogue. Paris, Èditions de l’aube
Castoriadis, Cornelius (1998): The Imaginary Institution of Society. Cambridge, MIT Press
Castoriadis, Cornelius (1997): World in Fragments. Writings on Politics, Society,
Psychoanalysis and the Imagination. Stanford, Stanford University Press
Castoriadis, Cornelius (1996): La monté de l’insignifiance, Les Carrefours du labyrinthe IV. Paris, Seuil
Castoriadis, Cornelius (1995): Filosofi, politik, autonomi. Stockholm/Stehag, Brutus Östling
Castoriadis, Cornelius (1991): Philosophy, Politics, Autonomy. Essays in Political
Philosophy. New York, Oxford University Press
Eisenstadt, S. 2002. Multiple modernities. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers.
Habermas, J. (1990): Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit: Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am main. Suhrkamp
Habermas, J. (1992): Faktizität und Geltung: Beiträge zur Diskurstheorie des Rechts und des demokratischen Rechtsstaats. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Sennett, R. (2006): The culture of the new capitalism. New Haven: Yale UP.
Wagner, P. (1994): A sociology of modernity: liberty and discipline. London: Routledge.
Wagner, P. (2008): Modernity as experience and interpretation: A new sociology of modernity. Cambridge Polity Press

Thesis Eleven, free sample

2009-02-24T21:30:00.001+01:00

Dear All,
Perhaps you will be interested to know, that Thesis Eleven now for some time generously has made Peter Murphy's and my special issue on self-organization (2007; 88:1) and creativity - including Castoriadis - a free sample.
Please go to: http://the.sagepub.com/content/vol88/issue1/
All the best, Anders Michelsen

How creativity is killed

2009-02-05T21:54:00.004+01:00

Here is a wonderful talk on creativity, art, children and the imagination. And how our educational system kills creativity.
IS

2009-01-24T20:16:00.000+01:00

Castoriadis and economic theory

2008-12-17T11:22:00.003+01:00

Hello,

I just joined academia.edu and added Castoriadis as a sub-topic under philosophy. I'm pretty lonely there right now.

I wanted to turn people's attention to the political economic work of Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler (bnarchives.yorku.ca). They have made some use of Castoriadis in their new theory of capital.

There is now a discussion group based on their theory (http://www.yorku.ca/cmass/forum/index.php). I have posted two papers I wrote on Castoriadis. One is linking Castoriadis and Veblen in more deeply explicating how the pair relate to N&B's 'power theory of capital.' The other is using Castoriadis to critique a little discussed, but vital (and ridiculous) component of neoclassical economics, the representative agent.

I hope others who work with Castoriadis will consider the work of N&B as an alternative to Marx's labour theory of value and capital.

Thanks,
Troy Cochrane

Castoriadis and Derrida

2008-12-14T10:34:00.003+01:00

I have been invited to write a chapter on Castoriadis and the imaginary for an anthology on postmodern thinking in pedagogy. This is of course a challenge, but an interesting one. First of all, I do not want to miss an opportunity to present Castoriadis' thought in my own part of the world (Norway), but more substantially, it is interesting to investigate in what sense he worked on the same issues as his postmodern contemporaries, though his approach and "answers" were quite different.

Right now I would like some advice on the following: Castoriadis taught at École des Hauted Études en Sciences Sociales from 1981 (starting there in 1980). Was Derrida already teaching there at that time? Did they acknowledge each other at all? In my view, they were concerned with many of the same questions, such as the relationship between language and meaning, ontology and more. If anyone wants to share some reflections on the (non-)relationship between the two, it would be most interesting.

Thanks!

Ingerid S.

Athens Symposium

2008-12-02T16:37:00.003+01:00

The Nordic Summer University's Winter Symposium in Athens, March 27-29, has received several interesting abstracts that can be viewed here.

Videos on democracy and integration

2008-12-02T16:30:00.004+01:00

Dominique Bouchet just released 5½ hours of video material about integration and democracy, inspired by Castoriadis, Morin, Lefort, and more. This material is available on the net and on 2 DVDs. See this webpage (language: Danish). Please feel free to pass this information to people who might be interested. Dominique Bouchet is also planning Spanish, French and English versions… Let’s see ..

Nordic Summer University: Winter Symposium in Athens, March 27-29, 2009

2008-11-08T16:46:00.010+01:00

The Ancient Greek and the Modern Western Imaginary

From the late 70’s Cornelius Castoriadis turned towards a deeper study of ancient Greek philosophy and culture. His seminars at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, held from 1980 to 1995, were in the first years devoted to the Greek imaginary and its creations. Recently, these seminars have been published in French, and partly translated into Greek. His theme was the emergence, in ancient Greece, of social imaginary significations that enabled societies to question their own institutions, and the co-emergence, out of that questioning, of philosophy and politics. Furthermore, connected to the political "project of autonomy" were the institutions of polis and democracy. Some points in Castoriadis's account are worth highlighting, as they open up a series of interesting questions.

First, he traces the origins of the signification of autonomy in Greek mythology and religion, as conveyed by poetry and the first cosmological and anthropological conceptions of the world. This calls for studies of the central role of mythology, religion and culture, and also of education or paideia in the formation of the imaginary world of society. Secondly, he argues that the signification of autonomy emerged within a mythological and, in Castoriadis’s judgment, deeply true conception of the world as a fundamentally undetermined Chaos. Any emergence of order (cosmos), according to that conception, is arbitrary, limited in time and deemed to destruction; something that is equally valid for gods and human beings, their societies and their institutions. This in turn opens up the question about the impact of the ontological conception of the world, as a source of social meaning, upon the thought and the institutional practices of society.

Thirdly, he locates the failure of democracy in ancient Greece in its de facto incapability of self-limitation, defining in that way self-limitation as one of the major principles of democracy. This opens up questions about the sources of self-limitation of democracy, as a kind of guarantee against its own self-destruction. Finally, he makes the interpretation that Plato’s hostility and in fact hate against democracy, which impregnate the whole of his work, was mainly built upon a conviction that the failure of democracy is immanent to its nature, and was due to the inherent inability of the uneducated mob to self-limit itself. Hence his effort to find an extra-social and extra-historical source of limitation of society. This endeavour also runs through the philosophical and political thought of modernity, raising a series of questions about the ambivalent and often hostile relation between democracy and (academic) philosophy.

The imaginary signification of autonomy, according to Castoriadis, re-emerged once again in Western Europe, but its historical trajectory has been shaped by some other significations that distinguish the modern Western imaginary from the ancient one. First, it re-emerged within a reductionist conception of the world as a determined differentiation of a unity. This conception runs through the most dominant strands of Western philosophy and also underlies its two major ideologies, liberalism and socialism, which effectively define freedom as recognition of necessity. This opens up a series of questions regarding the relations between a reductionist conception of the world and the project of autonomy, and regarding also the historical impact of the two Western ideologies and the social movements that they have inspired upon the historical trajectory of the project of autonomy. Second, the signification of autonomy re-emerged in West together with another central imaginary signification, namely the signification of the unlimited expansion of “rational mastery”, which underlies the political and economic institutions of capitalism. This raises a series of questions about the relations between the project of autonomy and the economic institutions of society. Finally, Castoriadis makes the diagnoses that during the last four or five decades we experience in Western societies a retreat from autonomy and a concomitant increasing domination and globalization of the signification of “rational master”. This raises questions about the contemporary state of the project of autonomy, the conditions of possibility of its restoration in the social and political scene and of its globalization.

We call for papers that aim to contribute to the elucidation of the following areas, related to the above questions, or of other related areas, such as:

• The emergence and the historical trajectory of the imaginary signification of autonomy in the thought, the institutional practices and in the cultural creations of the ancient Greece and the modern Western world.
• The state of the project of autonomy and the conditions of its possibility and its globalization in the contemporary world.
• Comparisons and cross-fertilizations with the work of other researchers related to the above areas.

Please send a short abstract to ingerid.straume(a)hihm.no by December 1st

Academic Tree

2008-10-29T12:56:00.003+01:00

Have you heard about academia.edu ? It is a great big network of academics all over the world (where else?) where everyone get their own homepage, can upload papers, search for colleagues etc. Looks great to mee. Perhaps a good place for a network in Castoriadis studies?
IS

Forthcoming Book on Castoriadis

2008-10-16T10:51:00.001+02:00

I thought people might be interested to know that a book I have written about Castoriadis’ work is scheduled to be published in 2009 by Brill as part of their Social and Critical Theory series. The title will be Castoriadis: Psyche, Society, Autonomy.

This will be the first monograph in English dedicated entirely to a consideration of Castoriadis’ ideas. The book is both an introduction to Castoriadis’ key concepts and arguments and an exploration of some of the philosophical underpinnings and implications of his work.

I will make another announcement once the book has been published.

Jeff Klooger

Conference in Gothenburg - session on Castoriadis

2008-10-01T17:30:00.005+02:00

See an upcoming event in Gothenburg with a special session on Castoriadis. This call for papers was forwarded from one of the coordinators, Mats Rosengren.
Antonio Negri is one of the key note speakers.

La Brèche

2008-07-10T12:56:00.009+02:00

Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort and Edgar Morin's book from June 1968, La Brèche, has been republished this year on Fayard, with an additional section called Vingt ans après (twenty years after). Here, the three authors comment upon the students' revolt and the question of organization for a would-be revolutionary movement. I have recently read Castoriadis's texts in the new volume (in the original volume, he used the pseudonym Jean-Marc Coudray). His ideas on the question of organization are not less interesting today, especially as a critique of the alterglobalization movement, the "movement of movements" (Negri & Hardt).

When giving advice to the – possibly – revolutionary movement, Castoriadis in particular warns against existing dichotomies, posed like mutually exclusive options. For instance, when there is either the imagination or the organization; creativity or reality, etc. As we know, politics is often, in ordinary discourse, perceived as something dull, hardened, set, signifying doxa, bureaucracy and non-creativity (well illustrated by Jacques Rancière’s concept la police). But also: hard reality, that which in the end must have a final say, the non-eligible. Political institutions and their keepers seem “real” in a commanding way: “You can play all you like, but in the end we all have to grow up and face reality, i.e. that which the grown-ups have decided”.

If we, correspondingly, limit our political repertoire to the other side of the dichotomy, e.g. happenings, the event and the carnivalesque (Bakhtin) – or worse, if we regard our commitment to politics as leisure time activities, something offered to us, something to fill our lives, providing “identity” and meaning – we are actually feeding the existing system, Castoriadis argues.[i] To accept the dichotomy – and hence, restrict our political activities to just one side of it out of fear of being captive to the other – means to submit our power to the existing hierarchy: bureaucratic capitalism. It also means saying that only one part of the dichotomy can be real, whereas the other becomes purely imaginary in the sense of fictional, non-real.

Accepter cette antinomie comme valable, c’est accepter l’essence de même de l’idéologie capitaliste bureaucratique, c’est accepter la philosophie et la réalité qui existent, c’est refuser la transformation réelle du monde, c’est intégrer la révolution dans l’ordre historique établi (Castoriadis 2008:136).

The point to remember is that it will always be in the interest of the powers in place to facilitate change in order to swallow it – or use it to renew and refine its own, existing power structures. Hence, if we accept the dichotomies offered by the existing social order, and choose one side against the other, we are already playing the game of the powers in place. It is therefore imperative, says Castoriadis, that the would-be revolutionary movement gives itself form. It must organize itself, give itself a “face” and articulate something to which it is willing to commit itself, albeit temporarily. By giving itself a new form, the revolutionary movement leaves behind the old ground with its definitions, dichotomies and dilemmas. This will also make the movement immune to cooptation. Furthermore, such self-positing is the only way to transgress hierarchy and divisions in society. Otherwise, the hierarchy will only reproduce itself in ever new versions.

Ingerid S.

[i] In my view, Hannah Arendt comes very close to accepting this dichotomy, in refusing to include the making of institutions in her notion of the term politics (Arendt 1990 [1963]). Similar claims can be made against Jacques Rancière.

Magma

2008-07-10T12:50:00.002+02:00

I have been told that there is a discussion group on Castoriadis on Facebook called Magma. Apparently, it is very active. I have not checked it out, since I do not (want to) use Facebook.

Ingerid S.

Call for papers: POLITICAL IMAGINARY AND HUMAN SUBJECTIVITY

2008-04-08T10:16:00.013+02:00

The Nordic Summer University invites participants for this year’s summer session at Brandbjerg Højskole, Vejle, Denmark, July 20 - 27, 2008. Abstract submission and registration by May 1st

Call for papers: POLITICAL IMAGINARY AND HUMAN SUBJECTIVITY

Political thought is interwoven with notions of political subjectivity. In deciding how to conceptualize the human subject - as a self-constructing or constructed identity, a bearer of interests, communicative negotiator, or cathected social meaning - certain notions of politics are brought to life. And vice versa.

40 years after May 68 – could the imaginary again become a political category?

Cornelius Castoriadis, influential thinker in the group "Socialisme ou Barbarie", was a great inspiration for May 68 rebel Daniel Cohn-Bendit. One of the central ideas of the time was that politics is an activity of the imaginary, i.e. to visualize, create and believe in (cathect) new forms of social organization. The notion of "the imaginary" (l'imaginaire) is central in Castoriadis's thought. Via the processes of sublimation and socialization, the imaginary constitutes human subjectivity. Even more original is the idea that the imaginary – and connected to this, creativity – defines the social-historical. Creation, to Castoriadis, is "... the mode of being of the social-historical field, by means of which this field is. Society is self-creation deployed as history". Politics, then, becomes conscious, social-historical creation of imaginary significations.

Today, it could be argued, our collective consciousness is burdened with too much reflexivity. Critique has turned into hyper-reflexivity and irony. Radical political thought seems to be divided between, on the one hand, neo-leninist proposals for unspecified "action"; on the other hand, identity politics and positioning in an endless web of relations. Castoriadis suggests a third alternative, combining elucidation with the always a-rational aspects of human creativity. Psychoanalysis, politics and human subjectivity to him become aspects of one and the same movement: “the project of autonomy”.

Contributors are welcome to explore these and related topics. Comparisons with other thinkers within political thought, psychoanalysis, pedagogy and social theory are especially welcome!
2-5 ECTS credits for PhD-students.

Please send a short abstract (ca. 300 words) by May 1st to ingerids2(a)yahoo.no
Participants without paper are also welcome.
NB: All participants must register!

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS in plenary sessions: Professors Andrew Bowie and Tong Shijun

Brandbjerg Højskole
Board and lodging are kept at good standard and a minimum prize. The summer session offers many possibilities for recreation, including a cultural programme, excursions and special arrangements for children (from the age of 3 years). Please note that the NSU, as a Nordic organization, can only fund travel expenses for praticipants from Nordic institutions, within the Nordic countries.

Nordic Summer University is an organisation and network for Nordic researchers working across the Nordic countries and the academic disciplines. NSU is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Our summer sessions have hosted such distinguished guest lecturers as Martha Nussbaum, Slavoj Žižek, Simon Critchley, Sandra Harding, Paul Gilroy and Johann P. Arnason.

More information about the Nordic Summer University (NSU)

Akureyri Winter Symposium

2008-04-06T11:23:00.003+02:00

Some photos from one of the most peaceful places on Earth, Akureyri, Iceland. Philosophers, sociologists and pedagogues discussing, talking, and bathing in natural hot pools.

MAY 1968 - 2008: Arrangements in the UK

2008-04-01T10:21:00.003+02:00

A few things which might be helpful - from Stuart:

This is the May 68 conference at Birkbeck University, London:
Call for papers
Programme

There is a season about to commence on BBC Radio four about May 68. A stack of programmes and resources are located here:
One daily programme will chart events day by day, starting March 17th. Programmes are usually archived on the site within a day or two of broadcasting, so you should be able to access them all, although be quick as they're taken off after a while.

Meantime, this is a BBC Radio 4 programme on 'Imagination'
HINT: Look in the second column, second box down for the link that plays the programme back to you
...This is the archive it comes from:
There are links to philosphy and other resources too...

Castoriadis symposium in Melbourne

2008-03-19T01:51:00.003+01:00

hello cc-ers,

i'm organizing a cc symposium in melbourne for later this year. at this stage it's for one day only, but should there be any interested northerners, i would try and get more funding to extend it over 2 or 3 days (but would need early expressions of interest from you to do that). i've pasted in the CFP below. hope the Akureyri gathering went well!

suzi

Call for papers:

SYMPOSIUM: CASTORIADIS IN DIALOGUE

Date: Friday, 28th November 2008
Venue: Monash University (Caulfield)

Ten years after the death of Cornelius Castoriadis, the interdisciplinary significance of his thought remains largely unmined. His philosophical-political elucidations sought not only to interrogate the human sciences (from art to epistemology) but extended to the natural sciences as well (from auto-poiesis to mathematics). Melbourne has long been central for Castoriadis studies, and, in continuing that tradition, interested scholars are invited to submit abstracts in any area of Castoriadis’ thought for in-depth presentation and discussion. Proposals that bring Castoriadis into dialogue with other thinkers and traditions are especially welcome.

Please email abstracts to Suzi Adams by 10th June, 2008
(Earlier expressions of interest are of course very welcome).

Email: suzi.adams@arts.monash.edu.au

Book wanted - Crossroads in the Labyrinth

2008-01-09T10:43:00.000+01:00

How on Earth do I get hold of Crossroads in the Labyrinth? (Castoriadis 1984, MIT Press). I live in Norway, and my university library does not provide it, nor will Amazon.com ship it here. Apparently, I live in the bush. Perhaps I could persuade my library, but as I need it rather quickly (to complete a thesis) it would be good if anyone out there had some good advice, e.g. second hand online bookstores. Thanks!

Ingerid S.

Link exchange

2007-11-15T09:03:00.000+01:00

For link exchange, please make contact again, your email was erased. Thanks.

Winter Symposium on Castoriadis, Akureyri, Iceland

2007-11-06T09:29:00.000+01:00

NORDIC SUMMER UNIVERSITY
Network Group 8: “Creation, Autonomy, Rationality”

Call for papers

The Adventure of Modernity: Castoriadis Beyond Post-Modernism and Neo-Modernism

Winter Symposium at Akureyri University, Iceland
March 7.-9. 2008

Recently, a fellow militant and friend of Cornelius Castoriadis described his work as “an exploration into the adventure of modernity” (Daniel Blanchard). Modernity to Castoriadis means radical transformation of social-historical being. So far, he would be in agreement with classical theories of modernity, such as Weber or Marx. But modernity as an adventure implies that there is something yet unknown and still open in modernity, which is not simply written into the project of rational domination or anticipated in modernity understood as an unfinished project.

The post-modernist declaration of the end of the grand narratives, i.e. the termination of every project of emancipation, relegated the very idea of modernity to the past. Several writers have since attempted to understand the post-modern condition as a continuation of the very modernism to which it would have bid farewell. However, none of the various positions of neo-modernism (a new modernity, second modernity or an unfinished project of modernity) have taken up the thrown (-away) gauntlet of emancipation. Neo-modernism in this sense throws in its lot with post-modernism.

Here, Castoriadis’s view on modernity may open up other prospectives. Modernity is characterised by its “dual institution”, a coexistence of autonomy and a peculiar contemporary form of heteronomy, as embodied in capitalism. The first breakthrough of the former was in ancient Greece, the second in modern democracy. This coexistence has since then been conflictual and unstable. The tendency towards bureaucratisation, which was understood by Weber as the fate of humanity, is for Castoriadis still located within the horizon of modern capitalism, with its goal of an unlimited expansion of "rational mastery". Capitalism hampers the project of autonomy; simultaneously it is permanently contested by the very same striving for autonomy.

Therefore, in the work of Castoriadis the horizon of an emancipatory modernity is still open, and the adventure is not over. We want to explore the implications of this position, as a a challenge to both post-modernism and neo-modernism.

We invite interested researchers, students and activists to participate with papers concerning the subject of Castoriadis and modernity. Papers relating to other aspects of the work of Castoriadis are also welcome. Language: English, alternatively paper in a Nordic language with summary and presentation in English.

ABSTRACTS: A brief abstract should be sent to Ingerid Straume: ingerids2 (a) yahoo.no by Dec. 1st. A preliminary programme will be available the 15th of December.

Nordic participants with papers will be provided with lodging and travel costs according to the guidelines of the Nordic Summer University. A limited amount of non-Nordic participants will be provided lodging, but no travel subvention.

More information, see
Nordic Summer University and also Association Castoriadis and Agora International

Some photos from Akureyri

Fires in Greece

2007-08-28T09:35:00.000+02:00

We are extremely sorry for all the ongoing bushfires in Greece. Please post you comments if you have something to share in this connection.

IS

They just don't make these anymore ...

2007-07-18T12:42:00.000+02:00

"History and the Revolution. A revolutionary critique of the historical materialism", by Paul Cardan.

Hönstryck ("Chicken print"), Sweden (anno?).

In the bubble: "How long shall we have to wait?"

NB: Still available from the booklist of Jaap van Huysmanns minde

40 years since 1967

2007-07-18T11:15:00.000+02:00

1967 symbolizes not so much, but next year will be something else. The year 1968, and the cluster of cultural and institutional changes associated with it, now occupies a new generation of academics, historians, political scientists and the like. These are people who were too young to have experienced the events and the atmosphere of 1968 in any substantial sense, yet feel a need to understand 1968 as a decisive historical background - a background that is also their own. Hence, they need to analyze it in their own (creative) terms, not just read the tales of those who were the protagonists of the time.

On the other hand, these protagonists also seem to take a renewed interest in the tales of the times. An interesting occurence is various publications that in a sense revitalize the symbolic context of 1968. For instance, in Norway, the grass roots publication Vannbæreren - the Water Carrier (remember Aquarius?) - is launching an issue this August, after 30 years of silence. This image is from a 1974 issue.

In the interim, the former militants and free-thinkers have been busy running an eco-village close to the Polar Circle, Karlsøy. This year, the Karsløy group celebrates a 30 year anniversary at their annual festival, where Vannbæreren reappears. The articles are a.o. accounts of alternative organizations, the history of alternative organizations and political and spiritual thought. Ingerid Straume has written a piece on Castoriadis, generalized conformism and reflections on adolescence in the aftermath of 1968; the apolitical 1980's. He, of course, was one of the thinkers circulated in those days - the 1970's - in little pamphlets under the name of Paul Cardan, which young students were pushing at their local schools for a few nickles.

An other article on related topics will be published in the formerly marxist-leninist newspaper Klassekampen -- the title means The Class Struggle, and even though the pictures of Mao, Lenin and Marx were removed from the heading a few years ago, the publication still bears the same name, which demands some respect. Today, it is mostly a publication for the educated classes with leftist sympathies. This is probably the first article on Castoriadis brought by Klassekampen, again indicating that a new generation of journalists are reinvestigating the history of leftist thought.

Network group on Castoriadis studies

2007-07-18T10:58:00.000+02:00

In 2007, The Nordic Summer University established a network group on Castoriadis studies, named Creation, Rationality and Autonomy. The group's first meeting was at Södertörn's Högskola, Stockholm, in March, 2007. The participants were of a wide range, in terms of age, academic career and geography. Here are some photos from Stockholm.

Now, we are getting ready for our first week-long summer session. The programme is very promising, and so are the social and cultural surroundings. For those who are interested, the next year's winter symposium will take place in one of the Nordic countries, possibly at the University of Akureyri, Iceland.

Castoriadis under the PCF banner

2007-07-18T10:47:00.000+02:00

From Dominique Bouchet in Denmark:

For your information, Sciences Humaines Summer issue has a six pages introduction to Castoriadis thought about autonomy:

Michel Lallement. "Cornelius Castoriadis. L'imaginaire au fondement des sociétés". Sciences Humaines, 185 (août-septembre): 60-61.Michel Lallement. "La révolution de l'autonomie". Sciences Humaines, 185 (août-septembre): 63-65.

Michel Lallement. "L’aventure Socialisme ou barbarie". Sciences Humaines, 185 (août-septembre): ENCADRÉ page 64.

It's pretty funny seeing an article about Castoriadis under a banner of the PCF.

Website (multilingual) on alternatives in economy and organization

2007-07-01T23:29:00.000+02:00

I was chekcing up details on the Irish thinker John Holloway - now living and teaching in Mexico - when I came across this interesting-looking website with articles and examples on alternative economy and organization.

A problem of interpretation

2007-05-28T23:23:00.001+02:00

I found a couple of interesting passages in the text "Done and To Be Done" (The Castoriadis Reader, p. 380-1) that concern education. Castoriadis lists some of the points of investigation that he finds interesting for a future follow up, among which:

"There is still the prescriptive/normative dimension, namely, the contribution these considerations can bring to a reflection on a form of education oriented toward autonomy"

And then:"Finally to be treated more amply than I have done so far [mentions two works] is the passage of the psyche and the heteronomous social individual to reflective and deliberative subjectivity (that is, the elucidation of the two different modes of sublimation)". (Ibid., emphasis in original)

It is not all clear what "these considerations" refer to. It could be matters of class, caste etc. which he'd just talked of -- or his work in general. But my main question to you, my knowledgeable colleagues, concerns the point about two modes of sublimation. What do you think: is he talking about 1) the passing from the unsocialized psychical monad to the socialized individual on the one hand, and 2) the passing from the state of heteronomy to autonomy in the case of a given individual, on the other? If so, my impression is that he has said quite a lot about the first, and almost nothing about the other. In other words, more work to be done.

An ongoing discussion

2007-05-22T15:46:00.000+02:00

F. Theodoridis and myself are having an ongoing discussion further dow, on The formal norm of human beings - for your information. More participants are welcome!
Ingerid S.

Workers' management in Yugoslavia

2007-05-09T09:15:00.000+02:00

The economist Peder Martin Lysestøl has recently published a text - in the Norwegian newspaper Klassekampen - pointing out the very scant documentation of Eastern European experiments that in fact had something going for them. According to him, the neoliberal powers that be want to erase any historcial knowledge and memories from socialism/communism except the bad ones. Research and documentation on the socialist economies is one area that suffers. He mentions workers selv-management in Yugoslavia during the 1950's and 60's, where the workers did have significant influence, combined with a remarkable economic growth. As anyone with some personal knowledge of the former Eastern bloc knows, some things at least were worth defending under the former system. It would be reasonable to document the various experiments that were after all performed. But, as Lysestøl notices, there is no funding for research in these areas.

I would be interested to know more about the workers' management economy in Yugoslavia. What kind of self-government was involved?

Ingerid S.

Castoriadis in English

2007-05-08T12:56:00.000+02:00

There seems to be a general interest for Castoriadis networks and symposia using English as their working language. Even though the Nordic Summer University (NSU) does not really facilitate international participation - being a network to support research cooperation in the Nordic region - the network group Creation, Rationality and Autonomy has gathered quite an international participation (more than any other network group in the NSU).

It would be interesting to collect some information on other working initiatives out there. Of course, there is competence in teaching Castoriadis in Greece, France and Belgium - and Italy, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland and more ... see the Teaching Castoriadis section at Agora International (where there is a also lovely contribution by Ian Pirie, who used to teach some Castoriadis at the East London University).

But what about English speaking milieus working with Castoriadis's thought today? We know there is quite a milieu for Castoriadis studies in Australia (La Trobe University and other places). But also in the USA there are niches for CC-studies. Where? And what about the UK?

Key note speaker 2007: Alenka Zupančič

2007-04-21T10:52:00.002+02:00

The Nordic Summer University's summer session invites key note speakers with a potential to interest all 8 network groups. These interdisciplinary groups all work on different topics and disciplines; for the time being ranging from creative speculation in aesthetics/technology to concrete regulations of the state. Fot this year's session in Sweden, 22.-29. July, the key notes are Alenka Zupančič and Hartmut Rosa (see next post).

Alenka Zupančič should be such a speaker. From wikipeida:
Alenka Zupančič is a Slovenian philosopher whose work focuses on psychoanalysis and continental theory. She is a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana. Zupančič belongs to the Slovenian school of psychoanalysis along with Mladen Dolar and Slavoj Žižek.
Zupančič has written on several topics including ethics, literature, comedy, love and other topics. Hegel, Bergson and Badiou are also referenced in her work.

Key Note speaker 2007: Hartmut Rosa

2007-04-21T10:33:00.000+02:00

Professor Rosa teaches both sociology and political theory. His research interests include - according to the German wikipedia source - studies of modernity in terms of technique and sociological "acceleration"; he has written on the philosophy of Charles Taylor, on critical theory, on social mobilization and he also holds an interest in the history of ideas in the tradition of the Cambridge school (see the next post on Q. Skinner).

According to the wikipedia article, this means that professor Rosa advocates that studies of contemporary and historical societies should be sensitive to the history of concepts and ideas, in terms of normativity and ideology, to form a critical perspecitve for research:

Rosa fordert eine Hinterfragung politischer Theorien bezüglich ihres Inhalts und ihres Wirkens. Das bedeutet die Untersuchung von Traditions- und Diskussionszusammenhängen, sowie normativer oder ideologischer Implikationen, in denen er das zentrale Anliegen einer kritischen Begriffsgeschichte sieht. Dieser Forschungsschwerpunkt fügt seine vorangegangenen Themenbereiche zusammen. Rosa sucht, neue Verbindungen zwischen der aktuellen Gesellschaftstheorie mit zeitdiagnostischen Analysen und einer normativen, kritischen Sozialphilosophie, deren Basis er in der Verknüpfung von "politik-, identitäts- und modernetheoretischen Überlegungen" sieht. (from http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartmut_Rosa )

Summer Session 2008: Key Note speaker Quentin Skinner

2007-04-21T09:57:00.001+02:00

The Nordic Summer University has just received a positive reply from the distinguished professor in modern history, Quentin Skinner, University of Cambridge. Skinner has been very influential in various studies such as history of Philsophy, rhetorics, textual studies, hermeneutics, political philosophy and the history of ideas.

I had the pleasure of hearing professor Skinner at the University of Oslo recently, where he gave two talks on political concepts of of freedom. His favoured political theory is (a neo-Roman) republicanism, and a republican notion of freedom, which to him is characterized by the abscence of arbitrary power as a social precence. His thought goes quite well together with Castoriadis's thought, and the two thinkers may open up for some new insights.

The Castoriadis network group would do well to arrange their summer session of 2008 with talks and papers that could interest professor Skinner.

Ingerid S.

Call for papers: WHAT IS THE SOCIAL-HISTORICAL?

2007-03-30T20:54:00.000+02:00

Wik castle, Uppsala Sweden July 22-29, 2007

What is the social-historical? For the philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis (1922-1997), neither society nor history can be understood without taking the other into consideration; forming the question of the social-historical. However, according to Castoriadis, traditional philosophy is built on inadequate notions that block our understanding – even the ability to pose the question – of the mode of being of the social-historical. These inadequacies are rooted in fundamental presuppositions of the philosophical traditions – such as the notion of universal causality, which Castoriadis rejected as a central part of what he called ‘the myth of being as being-determined’. Accordingly, the notions and ways of thinking that have upheld, and still uphold the Western philosophical tradition have contributed to screen out its own social-historical dimensions. For Castoriadis, this meant a severe reductionism; specifically lethal to the idea of being as creation: creation of meaning, significations and social forms – and creation of new modes of being: ideas that are central in his work.

Inherited thought has necessarily been led to reduce the social-historical to the types of being that it knew or thought it knew – having constructed them and thus determined them – from somewhere else, making the social-historical a variant, a combination or a synthesis of the corresponding beings: thing, subject, idea or concept. … However, if we decide to consider the social-historical for itself; if we understand that it is to be questioned and reflected upon on the basis of itself alone … then we observe that it shatters our inherited logic and ontology. For we see that it does not fall under any traditional categories – except in a nominal and empty way – but instead it makes us recognize the narrow limit of their validity, permits us to glimpse a new and different logic and, above all, radically to alter the meaning of: being. (Castoriadis 1987:169).

But then there is the other side of the matter: the anthropological dimensions of the social-historical. Patterns of the social-historical must also be thematized as modes of being-in-the world. And that is where the resources of the philosophical tradition come back in, beginning with the phenomenological tradition out of which Castoriadis came. This might imply a critique of Castoriadis’s tendency to a certain over-psychoanalytization of the anthropological dimensions. Possible trails to follow are civilization analyses and culture studies inspired by the thought of Max Weber, e.g. recent works of Johann P. Arnason. Also, a promising rereading of Castoriadis’s psychoanalysis can be found in Marcel Gauchet's work, indicating another way of understanding the link between psychoanalysis and political philosophy.

Furthermore, there is the notion of the human subject, which for Castoriadis is closely connected to the mode of being of the social-historical. What are the philosophical/scientific and political/practical implications of this way of conceptualizing the human subject, e.g. in terms of individuality?

To Castoriadis, Greek antiquity is in several respects a privileged domain of reference. First, it is one of his paradigmatic examples of social-historical creativity. Second, it is the one and only case of an original breakthrough to autonomy, i.e. to a self-reflection of the social-historical. Third, Greek philosophy is both an integral part and the most explicit articulation of this breakthrough; and Castoriadis saw it as a crucial resource to be drawn upon for the thematization of the social-historical. Fourth, Plato's thought is for Castoriadis the paradigmatic reversal/suppression of the original current of reflection – although the verdict is ambivalent.

The ensuing questions and areas for investigation are many, e.g.:

- Castoriadis's interpretation(s) of Greek antiquity and philosophy.
- The status and use of psychoanalysis in political thought.
- Notions of the human subject, and “the self”, in social and political theory. Hereunder, possibly, Castoriadis’s ambiguous relationship to Hegel.
- The social-historical discussed in different currents of thought (hermeneutics, phenomenology, pragmatism, postmodernism etc.).
- The influence and use of Castoriadis’s concepts, e.g of the social-historical, in current social theory (e.g. Giddens, Bauman, Joas, Wagner).

Contributions are welcomed on these subjects, or any subject matter within Castoriadis-studies as well as studies of thinkers that may elucidate the subject matter from other angles, whether philosophical, sociological, psychoanalytical or otherwise. We invite researchers, students, activists and others with an interest in these and connected problems to participate with papers, preferably in English, alternatively in a Scandinavian language, with summary and presentation in English.

Registration with a title of paper and a short abstract should be submitted to Ingerid Straume by May 1st

A preliminary programme will be ready by May 15th Participants will be provided with travel costs according to the guidelines of the Nordic Summer University. Participants without paper are also welcome; special terms for students.

More information on the network group and
Nordic Summer University: www.nsuweb.net

Keynote speakers for the summer session:
Hartmut Rosa and Alenka Zupancic (see link above)

L'Imaginaire

2007-03-21T19:01:00.000+01:00

I've just had a brief introduction to the 1940-book by Sartre called L'Imaginaire. It became very clear that Sartre ends up with several problems in this book, which Castoriadis's concept of the (radical and social) imaginary adresses, and solves very well. I believe that Castoriadis must have worked specifically with - and up against - this thought of Sartre's in his own main work, The Imaginary Institution of Society. However, I have never heard mention of any connections between these works. Does anyone know if there has been written papers or articles that investigate the connections between them?

Ingerid S.

Brussels April 26 and 27

2007-03-08T19:49:00.000+01:00

The annual colloque on Castoriadis studies in Brussels is announced here

This year's theme is PRAXIS AND INSTITUTION:
"Envisager conjointement la praxis et l’institution permet de saisir l’une des dimensions les plus novatrices du travail de Castoriadis, qui consiste précisément à affronter sans fard l’aporie que manifeste le rapprochement de ces deux notions. "

Language: French. The papers are normally published in Cahiers Castoriadis.

The formal norm for human beings

2007-02-15T11:25:00.000+01:00

In the text Psychoanalysis and Philosophy (1993), Castoriadis calls the subjectivity characteristic of autonomy - a reflective and deliberate subjectivity - "the formal norm for human beings" (The Castoriadis Reader, trans/ed. D.A. Curtis, Blackwell 1997). This statement of a certain philosophical anthropology, indicates that autonomy is seen by Castoriadis to be the realization of human nature; autonomy is the cultural life form that allows human beings to flourish. As such, this passage goes against the interpretation of autonomy as something that we invented, and then kept striving for because we liked it - i.e. mere perspecitivsm. See earlier discussions on this topic here - post called Three levels of autonomy ...

I furthermore have found more reasons to relativize the stark opposition of heteronomy and autonomy (confer discussion opened by Suzi here), in that traditional "heteronomous" societies are in many ways reproducing themselves by stories whose meaning and significations are rather open-ended. Cf. myths, which are rather more stimulative to the creative imagination than atheist imagery. I think CC might agree on this.

Ingerid S.

Castoriadis Réinventer l'autonomie Paris March 1-3

2007-02-11T12:33:00.000+01:00

This year, it will be 10 years since the passing away of Cornelius Castoriadis. The University of Paris VIII - which has an interesting story /here in English connected to May 68 - and the University of Cergy-Pontoise, are marking this event with a grand conference, announced on the front page of Association Castoriadis here

We invite bloggers and commentators who will participate at this conference to discuss contributions and upcoming/ongoing discussions on this blog. As this is a group blog - with a majority of sleeping bloggers - you are welcome to sign up as a blogger and create new posts.

Participants from the Nordic Castoriadis study circle will be there!

(See programme in comment)

Thanasis the blogger?

2007-02-09T13:47:00.000+01:00

I would like to hear from Thanasis, the blogger who engaged with me in a very interesting discussion on Arendt vis à vis Castoriadis a few months back.
As I am currently writing my PhD-thesis and have chosen to develop some of the points that you made, it would be very good to be able to refer to your real name, if you don't mind? My email: ingerids2-a-yahoo.no

Ingerid S.

Thesis Eleven on Castoriadis, Culture and Complexity

2007-01-30T13:28:00.000+01:00

The current issue of Thesis Eleven features several interesting articles from scholars associated with this blog and the study circle. Guest editors are Anders Michelsen and Peter Murphy.
Congratulations! Free trial copy can be ordered from Sage, and abstracts and articles viewed here

Cahiers Castoriadis

2007-01-22T16:53:00.000+01:00

Two volumes published by the Brussels university group that works on Castoriadis (Philippe Caumières, Sophie Klimis et Laurent Van Eynde), to be viewed here
These are products of the first two annual conferences on Castoriadis in Brussels, I think.

Ingerid S.

Climate Change and Revolution

2007-01-21T16:09:00.000+01:00

Over the past few months, climate changes have become a much-debated topic in the media and in general, in many Western countries. We have known about it for a very long time, but recently it has become a word on everyone's lips, something that we feel strongly about. Surely, of late there has been extreme weather in more varieties than we could imagine, as well. Odd weather has become the norm.

As history shows us, social change can happen very fast, once there is a critical energy in the population; once the time is ripe. For many years now, social change has seemed illusory - an illusion in itself. I think the time for another major social change is coming close. The capitalist economic system will be put to task, and concern about the ongoing climate changes will be the fuel. In this process, intellectuals and activists may play a positive part, providing insights and analysis.

Ingerid S.

The Nordic Castoriadis Study Circle - some data

2007-01-15T15:50:00.000+01:00

The Nordic Circle for Castoriadis Studies - "Creation, Rationality and Autonomy" - will soon have its first gathering at Södertörn University College, Stockholm, Sweden. This is a week end with paper sessions and discussions. The aim of the study circle is to strengthen the research and general awareness of Castoriadis oeuvre. The Nordic Summer University is based on non-hierarchical communalism, voluntary work and friendly exploration of ideas, much in the spirit of Castoriadis.

The following sessions are planned - albeit not fixed concerning place and themes:
Winter Symposium 2007: "Bureaucracy and Autonomous Society" - Stockholm

Summer Session 2007: "What is the Social-Historical?" - Wik, near Uppsala/Stockholm

Winter Symposium 2008 - Akureyri, Iceland

Summer Session 2008 - somewhere in Finland

Winter Symposium 2009 - Delfi, Greece

Summer Session 2009 - somewhere in Denmark

The Nordic Summer University is mainly funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, with the objective of furthering Nordic academic work that has no institutional 'home' elsewhere. Therefore, Nordic participants will be prioritized, and travel subvention is only avaliable for these groups. However, international participants are more than welcome to fill up the sessions!

Social movements, socio-spatial practices and the autonomy project in contemporary Latin America

2006-12-30T17:40:00.000+01:00

The concept of autonomy - ‘living according to one’s own laws’ - has been discussed by philosophers since the 18th century, from Kant to contemporary liberals (who overemphasise its individual dimension). Especially in the philosophical work of Cornelius Castoriadis autonomy was understood as an alternative both to representative ‘democracies’ and Marxist ‘socialism’ (by virtue of the conservative and authoritarian dimension of the latter). Castoriadis understood much better than the liberals the interdependence of the two aspects which autonomy embraces: individual autonomy, that is the capacity of a particular individual to make choices in freedom, and collective autonomy, or the conscious and explicitly free self-rule of a particular society, as based on concrete institutional and material guarantees of equal chances of participation in socially relevant decision-making processes.

While adopting Castoriadis’ interpretation of the autonomy project as a major source of politico-philosophical and ethical inspiration, I have also argued in several works that it is necessary to see that, despite its European roots, in the context of globalisation and in the framework of a strongly ‘westernised’ world, this project is no longer a monopoly of the ‘West’ (in a strict sense) or of ‘western’ social movements. It is interesting to see that autonomy is a word which is often used by several social movements in Latin America, particularly by the piqueteros in Argentina and the zapatistas in Mexico. It is surely not accidental that some intellectuals linked to the zapatistas and piqueteros (or to the sem-teto [squatters] movement in Brazil) have cultivated a dialogue with Cornelius Castoriadis’ work. How have these social movements tried to implement the autonomy project under very heterogeneous particular circumstances - from rural Chiapas to the periphery of Buenos Aires to some squatters’ settlements in Rio de Janeiro? To which extent can we understand this kind of ‘adaptation’/‘translation’ of the politics of autonomy and horizontality by social movements outside Europe as a symptom of the vitality of the autonomy project?

Marcelo Lopes de Souza

Arendt conference in Stockholm

2006-12-16T15:50:00.000+01:00

The upcoming conference in Stockholm on Arendt, and her analysis of totalitarianism, has now presented a very promising preliminary programme, to be viewed here
Many of the speakers and organizers have worked extensively on Castoriadis (Arnason, Joas, Howard, Simonsuuri, and in part, Heller). The philosophical affinities between the two thinkers seem to be rather widely recognized.

Winter Symposium programme complete

2006-12-13T09:37:00.000+01:00

The programme for the first Winter Symposium in the Nordic Castoriadis Study Circle is now complete (view preliminary programme here), with theoretical papers from several disciplines as well as empirical case studies, and participants from a range of places.
NB: There is still plenty of room for participants without a paper. Students are particluarly welcome!

Also, don't forget the NSU Summer Session at Wiik Castle/Boarding School in Sweden, July 22-29 2007: A whole week of academic work and play, together with 7 other study circles, under the blonde Nordic summer nights. See NSU's homepage here

www.sterling.dk provide super cheap flights in and out of Scandinavia if you order early.

Second Call for Papers - Bureaucratic Society and Autonomy

2006-12-02T20:32:00.000+01:00

Check out the preliminary programme for the Winter Symposium in Stockholm here. Abstracts are still welcome until the programme is complete. Each presentation should be 30-40 minutes, followed by a general discussion of equal length. Language: English. Papers may also be in a Scandinavian language with presentation in English.

The papers in full length must be adimitted two weeks before the Symposium, to be distributed to the participants. Welcome!

autonomy and 'pseudo' rational mastery

2006-12-01T04:23:00.000+01:00

castoriadis elucidates modernity as the dual institution of autonomy and the infinite pursuit of rational mastery. for him, these imaginary signfications are not just different (or other!) but polar. yet is there not an overlap of the autonomist imaginary in that of rational mastery?

New publication, Castoriadis in German

2006-11-30T10:43:00.000+01:00

The recently released German collection of Castoriadis-texts, Autonomie oder Barbarei, edited by Harald Wolf, is relaunched by a radio station at this nice webpage.

The unresolved being of 'doing'

2006-11-24T00:01:00.000+01:00

In the 1975 section of the IIS, Castoriadis set out to elaborate the being of 'doing' but it was gradually eclipsed by the being of 'signification'. Although 'doing' remained central to him throughout his trajectory, its elucidation remained fragmentary. Some interesting points of tension arise with this twofold aspect of social-historical modes of being and is evident in his writings on 'doing' and his later post 1990 thematic on the 'autonomy of art'. This tension was not, in my view, resolved in his thought. It is especially evident between the temporality of the doing of 'folk' art/cultural forms as non-commodified - or even 'authentic' - cultural creativity and Castoriadis' increasig insistence on the Kantian interpretation of art as the 'positing of new forms'.

I'd be very interested to hear your views on this.

On Political Depression

2006-11-22T16:06:00.001+01:00

I am presently writing an article on the conditions for critical, creative thinking in the light of globalized economy. The concepts of Castoriadis on social imaginary significations, and of Arendt on thinking and creating a common world, are my guidelines. There are several ways in which economic globalization can be said to influence the conditions for thinking in general and political creativity in particular. Consumerism, economism, insecurity are obvious factors, but more important is probably the factors concerning meaning, perhaps a general loss of significance that the late Castoriadis spoke about, and the entailing apathy and depoliticization.

(A detour: Loss of significance must also be meaningful in some sense or another, following Castoriadis (1975) in that we only maintain practices insofar as they provide meaning for us. So can there be "insignificant meaning"? And what is significance; and for whom?)

I read the other day a great book by professor Anders Johansen from the University of Bergen, on how he'd been depressed without knowing it - politically depressed - as long as he was writing only for himself and for his career, without publishing. Yet he wasn't aware of his state of depression before he'd started to engage in political activities and publishing for a general audience. That's when he realized that he'd been "lonely as a citizen". From then on, Johansen never stopped writing for a general audience. He had become a public intellectual.
In writing this, I thought maybe "political depression" is a state characteristic of economic globalization? We, as consumers and workers, miss the political community - which of course, many of us never experienced, but still wish for; perhaps we read about it - but do not know it?

Thesis Eleven on Claude Lefort

2006-11-17T12:04:00.001+01:00

Thesis Eleven - journal for Critical Theory and Historical Sociology issue no. 87, november 2006, is titled "Thinking with Lefort - the political and the symbolic".
Claude Lefort was the other, central firgure of the tendence Chaulieu-Montal (Castoriadis + Lefort) in the French, trotskyite communist party PCI of the 4th International, and often presented as cofounder of Socialisme ou Barbarie. Actually, Lefort/Montal left the PCI before Castoriadis and the others, and did not take part in publishing the first issue of the journal Socialisme ou Barbarie (SouB) in 1949 (According to A. Ramsay in Res Publica no. 58, Stockholm 2003).

Through his position at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), he has excercised a strong influence on contemporary political thought in France and elsewhere. He is still connected to EHESS, at the Raymond Aron centre for political research

Why Autonomy?

2006-11-17T01:02:00.000+01:00

Why autonomy? Answers given by Castoriadis are: Once you have discovered/created autonomy you want to have it; autonomy is the only defensible position (for people who know it) and so on. But is it perfectly clear that a little heteronomy cannot be good - for some people, who do not want it otherwise? Doesn't heteronomy make it easier to live "life as usual", and a peaceful one? Is it not a cross to bear, to be the one who puts everything into question all the time? Yes it is.

If the philosopher makes this into a moral norm, he is straining and overburdening the individual. Autonomy must be collectively instituted: but even so ...

One of Henrik Ibsen's characters once said that if you take the grand illusions from a person, you take away his whole joy for life. This is a paradox. But the question remains: why autonomy, or rather, what is really so bad about heteronomy?
IS

CALL FOR PAPERS

2006-11-01T21:00:00.000+01:00

Bureaucratic Society and Autonomy

Winter Symposium at Södertörn Högskola, Stockholm Sweden
March 23.-25. 2007

"I pulled the string of bureaucratization and I kept on pulling", Cornelius Castoriadis once summarized his intellectual development. From the beginning of his career as a radical political thinker in post-war France, the phenomenon of a new bureaucratic society arising in Eastern and Western Europe stood at the centre of his investigations. A large part of his writings was dedicated to the analysis of the one-party states of the Eastern bloc. The rise of a new class, with a particular interest in the bureaucratic rule of states, parties and enterprises appeared as a main obstacle for the project of individual and collective autonomy. Castoriadis never stopped theorising over the problems of bureaucracy and autonomy, throughout his political, philosophical and psychoanalytical writings. To him, autonomy meant to consciously create one's own institutions, something which could never be combined with bureaucracy, as this meant institutionalized inequality, i.e. heteronomy. The only political influence vis-à-vis the workers that could be justified for Castoriadis, was one that served to increase their consciousness and their ability to govern themselves.

Today, after the breakdown of the Soviet Union and the rise of what is known as global capitalism and global bureaucracies, we may ask whether Castoriadis analysis is still valid, or whether the project of autonomy faces new problems of a different kind. The problem of autonomy, its obstacles and possibilities needs to be scrutinised over and over again, from many different angles – political, sociological, philosophical, historical etc. Is the project of autonomy dead or doomed; or still viable in some form? What are its epistemological and metaphysical prerequisites?

We invite researchers, students, activists and others with an interest in these and connected problems to participate with papers, preferably in English, alternatively in a Scandinavian language, with summary and presentation in English. Registration: click here or mail to ingerids2 [a] yahoo.no . Participants with papers will be provided with lodging and travel costs according to the guidelines of the Nordic Summer University.

An Other World is Possible - or The Rising Tide of Insignificancy still?

2006-10-19T12:21:00.000+02:00

Since the protest against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, 1999, grassroots activists have joined with more formally organized activists to arrange World Social Forum, and local offsprings like European Social Forum and national versions. These days, associated activists in Norway arrange the annual Globalization Conference.

The slogan of the fora: An Other World is Possible, captures the essence of Castoriadis's concept of autonomy, as conscious auto-institution. After 20 years of passivity, under the punch-line "There Is No Alternative" (to market capitalism), young and old leftists are now reawakening to the insight and belief in social change - major social change. They once again dare to think that other institutions and significations can be created.

The question is whether the Tide of Insignificancy, diagnosed by Castoriadis in the 1980's now is receding? Or does the event of the social fora merely signify that we, the subjects under global capitalism, have become "super-reflexive"; using our insights to do nothing, i.e. that we diagnose ourselves and leave it at that: cf. Zizek's "ideology with eyes open"-? In short, would Castoriadis's thought best be used to critique, or to affirm the "movement of movements" of the World Social Forum?

Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης

2006-10-18T21:07:00.000+02:00

Conditions for political creativity

2006-10-14T19:43:00.000+02:00

What can be said of institutional conditions for political creativity? A well functioning public sphere, education for democracy, an open and investigative culture etc.? Or a clearly oppressive society? Is it not true that creativity, political and otherwise, thrives on restrictions and duress?

Thesis completed

2006-10-11T18:23:00.000+02:00

A doctoral thesis on Castoriadis's philosophy - the first to critically interpret his ontological turn of the Imaginary Institution of Society and beyond - has recently been submitted by Suzi Adams at La Trobe University, Australia. Title: "Castoriadis and the Circle of Physis and Nomos: A Critical Investigation of his Philosophical Trajectory".
Supervisor: Professor Johann P. Arnason.

Congratulations, Suzi!

Ingerid S.

New anthology - Socialisme ou Barbarie

2006-10-11T18:11:00.000+02:00

I received an email announcing this upcoming book, with hard-to-get, original texts. Read more in the comment, in French.
A-info's mailing list
Ingerid

Hannah Arendt and Cornelius Castoriadis

2006-09-30T16:38:00.000+02:00

As many of us are currently remembering the 100 year anniversary of the birth of Hannah Arendt, it would be an occasion to discuss similarities and differences between her political philosophy and the phenomenologyof the World, and the thought of Castoriadis. I, for one, find it very enriching to read the two together and up against each other. Where one stops, the other continues and vice versa.

My - for now - superficial impression is that CC is the strongest on ontological issues whereas Arendt has more to say on the level of intersubjectivity and praxis, e.g. what does it mean to be one human being among other beings who are different - uniquely different. The latter point is sometimes vehemently contested by Castoriadis, who claims that if you are 1 % unique and "only" 99 % socialization, you are truly a genius (quoted from memory).

The problem with this is that Castoriadis, by focusing on the two levels, society and the psyche, and playing down notions of human multiplicity and individual differences, also diminishes the concept of political creativity which he promotes in so many other ways. In other words, his concept of social autonomy would be enriched if supplemented with a meso-level of human creativity which can be found in Arendt's thought on the conditions for a common World. Keywords are politics as creation.

Viewpoints, anyone?

Ingerid S. (who's a fan of both Arendt and Castoriadis)

Summer Session in Sweden

2006-09-20T14:20:00.000+02:00

The Summer Session of NSU is something that can only be experienced - hardly described. The coming session will take place at Wiik Castle, south of Uppsala/north of Stockholm, July 22.-29. 2007 (Swedish-language info with photos here ). More than a hundred participants from eight study circles will be together for a whole week of academic work and - play; with families and without. (A few families were even said to have started here ... )
Keynote speakers: Hartmut Rosa, University of Jena/ The New School of Social Research New York, and Alenka Zupancic, Institute of philosophy, Ljubljana, Slovenia. This combination of critical sociology and psychoanalytical philosophy should be fertile ground for the first, Nordic crossdisciplinary session of Castoriadis studies.

Winter Symposium at Södertörn University College March 23.-25. 2007

2006-09-13T08:54:00.000+02:00

The first Winter Symposium in the Nordic Castoriadis study circle will take place at Södertörn Högskola in Stockhom, Sweden, March 23.-25. 2007. More information on thematics/call for papers will follow.

The study circle is open for new participants of all ages and academic levels. Please forward this information and link up to the blog, write comments etc.!

Paideia quotes by Castoriadis?

2006-09-06T18:04:00.000+02:00

I am currently investigating the notion of paideia - and associated concepts like education, areté etc. - in relation to Castoriadis's discussion of autonomy (cf. the three levels of autonomy that I suggested in an earlier post). So far, I have only found a couple of mentions of paideia in his work, however, these are seminal articles, and the notion of paideia is put forth as a "grand finale", a normative appeal and a practical key in those very texts. Would be very grateful if any of you know about, or stumble across, more texts where Castoriadis speaks about paideia or education. Post a comment if you do!

The most interesting texts on the topic that I've found so far are:

Democracy as Procedure and Democracy as Regime, where CC talks of a democratic paideia as one of the main objects of a society's political concerns, in order to produce a certain kind of individuals (citizens).
The text in defence of Vidal-Naquet, L'industrie du vide, in which he mentions some necessary democratic virtues.
The Greek Polis and the Creation of Democracy, where he talks of democratic paideia as participation in the political life,
and most importantly, the article Psychoanalysis and Philosophy (in The Castoriadis Reader) where he connects psychoanalysis, politics and pedagogics as three practices that all aim at the autonomy of one or several others.

the autonomy and heteronomy problematic

2006-09-02T02:18:00.000+02:00

the two central motifs in cc's thought are autonomy and (self) creation. although the one is not subsumed by the other, sometimes he seems to hesitate at their points of overlap. on the other hand, cc's distinction between autonomy and heteronomy is starkly drawn (although there are implicit points of that relativize their dichotomy within his own thought). there have been two historical, albeit partial, breakthroughs to autonomy: in ancient greece and with the onset of modernity. i for one do not think it's very helpful to consign the rest of world history to heteronomy, but neither would i want to collapse the distinction altogether. i think it could be important to look for - and recognize - more oblique and partial forms of autonomy within contexts that have conventionally been designated as 'heteronomous'. if 'partial breakthroughs' to autonomy can be recognized in the graeco-western trajectory, why not in other civilizational constellations as well? do we need to think autonomy more from an inter-cultural perspective?

Want to blog?

2006-08-29T09:52:00.000+02:00

Blogging should not be too serious. Posting comments is easy, just click the link called comments and follow the instructions. There is also room for postings, of questions, thoughts and information about Castoriadis-studies and related topics. The advantage with blogging is that we do not have to wait for the next conference to discuss our ongoing work. The floor is yours ...
Ingerid S.

PS: The page may need to be "refreshed" to see what's new. It is still under construction, on our part and on the server side.

Castoriadis conference March 1.-3. in Paris

2006-08-27T15:05:00.000+02:00

Check out this very interesting conference, hosted by the Paris VIII University and L'université de Cergy-Pontoise, March 1.-3 2007, "Réinventer l'autonomie" . I assume that it's open and will try to attend.
Ingerid S.

Three levels of autonomy in Castoriadis's thought?

2006-08-23T13:43:00.000+02:00

CC's thought on the revolutionary project, psychoanalysis and philosophy seems to indicate three levels of, or ways to conceive of, autonomy. The first concerns self-management, the third concerns full consciousness about the relationship between the instituting and the instituted, or between ontological chaos and (radically created) meaning. But what can be said of psychoanalytical autonomy? Surely, Castoriadis's practice as a psychoanalyst must have had something to do with guiding patients towards autonomy in some sense? Was this a less demanding goal than the philosophical one? After all, full awareness of the meaninglessness of Being seems like a goal reserved for the few (the philosophers)?

Ingerid Straume, PhD student

Arendt conference in Stockholm

2006-08-23T09:35:00.000+02:00

Conference on Arendt and totalitarianism Stockholm 2007
http://www.goethe.de/ins/se/sto/ges/pok/svindex.htm

2006-08-22T21:31:00.000+02:00

Cornelius Castoriadis (1922-1997)

A Nordic Experiment

2006-08-22T14:58:00.000+02:00

Welcome to the blog hosted by the new, Nordic study group on Castoriadis. This is an experiment in communication and joint research. Castoriadis-related comments are welcome: book reviews, conference notices, thoughts from your ongoing work ...

Ingerid Straume (administrator)

Photo (by Johannes S.): An earlier version of study group 8, Les Penseurs, at work in an old USSR gym in Estonia, NSU Summer session of 2006.