Castoriadis - project of an autonomous and democratic society

Abstract

The text presents Cornelius Castoriadis's project of autonomy along his philosophical and political trajectory: first, from a socialist perspective, as self-management; then, as the proposal of a radical democracy, autonomy being the main requirement for the institution of a just, egalitarian and free society. It follows the articles of the journal Socialisme ou Barbarie, The Imaginary Institution of Society and the volumes of Crossroads in the Labyrinth, passing through the critique of the Soviet bureaucracy, the departure from Marxism and the analysis of the rationality of contemporary capitalism. It addresses autonomy in its connection with creation and with the instituting social imaginary, distinguishes heteronomous societies from those that institute themselves explicitly and lucidly, and takes up the diagnosis of present-day democracy as a liberal oligarchy marked by the loss of social imaginary significations. It records the author's concern with the destruction of the biosphere and holds that the institution of an autonomous society presupposes that the economic cease to be the central value.