Castoriadis and social theory: from marginalization to canonization to re-radicalization

This chapter examines Cornelius Castoriadis's trajectory from obscurity and the margins of post-war French intellectual and political milieu to the misappropriation and canonization of his thought after the 1970s and argues for a re-radicalization of his thought. First, it considers his formative experience in Greece and examines how the post-war French political, economic and ideological conditions and the group and journal Socialisme ou Barbarie contributed to Castoriadis's radicalization. The chapter explores some reasons for the rising interest in the social and political thought of Cornelius Castoriadis, expressed in both academic and political circles after the 1970s and has led not only to his international recognition but also to a triple diversion of the political and radical meaning of his theorizing. After the 1970s, Castoriadis's radical and left critique of totalitarianism, Marx and Marxism was misconstrued and misused by the new philosophers'. The chapter concludes by arguing for a need to restore to Castoriadis's work its proper political and radical problematic.