Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction to Cornelius Castoriadis’ Early Essays / Vrasidas Karalis -- Author’s Introduction to the Publication of the 1988 Edition / Cornelius Castoriadis -- 1 Directions of the Journal Sociological and Ethical Archive / Cornelius Castoriadis -- 2 On the Work of Max Weber / Cornelius Castoriadis -- 3 Obituary for A[gis] Stinas / Cornelius Castoriadis -- 4 The Choral Ode from Antigone: “πολλὰ τὰ δεινὰ [. . .]” Refracted Through Cornelius Castoriadis and Martin Heidegger / Anthony Stephens -- 5 Aesthetics and Autonomy / Cooper Cooper -- 6 Philosophy and Theatre: Cornelius Castoriadis on the Imaginary Structure of Meanings in Theatre and Performance / George P. Pefanis -- 7 Bureaucratic Capitalism and the work of Cornelius Castoriadis / Peter Murphy -- 8 Contexts of Capitalism: From the ‘Unlimited Extension of “Rational Mastery” ’ to Civilizational Varieties of Accumulation and Economic Imagination / Jeremy Smith -- 9 Between Modernism and Postmodernism: Castoriadis and the Politics of Heterodox Marxism / Simon Tormey -- 10 Between Creative Democracy and Democratic Creativity / Craig Browne -- 11 Imagining Democracy / Jeff Klooger -- 12 Autonomy, Oligarchy, Statesman: Weber, Castoriadis and the Fragility of Politics / John Rundell -- 13 Radical Democratic Subjectivity: Possibilities and Limits / Toula Nicolacopoulos and George Vassilacopoulos -- Index.

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Cornelius Castoriadis and the Project of Radical Autonomy analyses the philosophy of Greek-born French philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis. A leading member of the influential revolutionary group, Socialism or Barbarism in France, Castoriadis analysed contemporary political subjectivity and culture in terms of the collective and individual attempt to gain autonomy. His philosophy frames a multi-dimensional analysis of modern capitalist societies, based on a systematic critique of orthodox Marxism, Heideggerian ontology and Lacanian psychology. The present volume consists of two parts. In the first part, his most significant essays written before his departure to France in 1945 are translated and present young Castoriadis’ interpretation of Max Weber’s theory of bureaucratic societies. The second part consists of a series of essays by various scholars on aspects of Castoriadis’ mature philosophy in relation to other thinkers, and against the background of Europe’s political and social history.