The Imaginary Institution of Society
by Cornelius Castoriadis
Kathleen Blamey (Translator)
# Paperback: 426 pages
# Publisher: The MIT Press (January 9, 1998)
Thirty years ago Castoriadis founded the French journal Socialisme ou Barbarie, the title of which stated the alternatives he then saw confronting capitalism. Like Bruno Rizzi, James Burnham, and Milovan Djilas, who worked through an early belief in Marxism to develop a critique of Marxism from the Left, Castoriadis came to conclude that Marxism itself ends in the barbarism of a new class of bureaucrats. The first half of the present work consists of Castoriadis's trenchant critique, while the second half attempts to explain society's origin and function from a new viewpoint. Castoriadis's social theory, a product of more recent years, holds that society arises from the creative imagination, especially in language. Although his presentation is abstract, it is often punctuated by striking examples. This title belongs in most academic collections. Brent A. Nelson, Univ. of Arkansas, Technology Campus Lib., Little Rock
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"[T]he most original, ambitious, and reflective attempt to think through the liberating mediation of history, society, external and internal nature once again as praxis."
-- Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity
"Castoriadis's The Imaginary Institution of Society is a work of great power and originality. As a work of social theory, I would argue that it belongs in a class with the writings of Habermas and Arendt."
-- Jay Bernstein, University of Essex
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