Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgements xvi

Abbreviations xviii

1.'The Only Way to Find out If You Can Swim Is to Get into the Water’: An Introductory Interview (1974) 1

2. Presentation of Socialisme ou Barbarie: An Organ of Critique and Revolutionary Orientation (1949) 35

3. On the Content of Socialism (1955-1957): Excerpts 40

From the Critique of Bureaucracy to the Idea of the Proletariat's Autonomy (1955) 40

On the Content of Socialism, II (1957) 49

4. Recommencing the Revolution (1964) 106

5. Marxism and Revolutionary Theory (1964-65). Excerpts 139

Marxism: A Provisional Assessment 139

Theory and Revolutionary Project 146

6. The Social Imaginary and the Institution (1975). Excerpt. The Social-Historical 196

7. The Social Regime in Russia (1978) 218

8. From Ecology to Autonomy (1980) 239

9. The Crisis of Western Societies (1982) 253

10. The Greek Polis and the Creation of Democracy (1983) 267

11. The Logic of Magmas and the Question of Autonomy (1983) 290

12. Radical Imagination and the Social Instituting Imaginary (1994) 319

13. Culture in a Democratic Society (1994) 338

14. Psychoanalysis and Philosophy (1996) 349

15. Done and To Be Done (1989) 361

Index 418

About the Author

David Ames Curtis is an independent translator and writer. He is based in Paris.

Reviews

"The Castoriadis Reader, with representative extracts from almost fifty years of political and philosophical writing, reflects his long march from Marx back to Aristotle." Scott McLemmee, Lingua Franca

"When so many pay superficial tribute to false prophets, how much better to pay serious attention to this true thinker." Nicolas Walter, New Statesman
"For those unfamiliar with the thought of Castoriadis, reading his works for the first time is to encounter one of the most original and creative figures of the last half of the twentieth century." David Wallace, Topia