EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CORNELIUS CASTORIADIS BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK DAVID AMES CURTIS

Abstract

Andrey Rolyenok’s conversation/correspondence with David Ames Curtis on Cornelius Castoriadis’s legacy, its preservation, promotion, and critical updating in the context of the current socio-political situation took place in January–March 2023. The contribution of the Agora International Association to the development and extension of Castoriadis’s work is considered in the interview. The origins of Castoriadis’s thought (break with Marxism, revision of psychoanalysis, influence of Martin Heidegger’s ideas, return to ancient philosophy, etc.) are evoked. Key ideas of Castoriadis are reconstructed and contextualized (the project of individual and collective autonomy, creativity, and the rising tide of insignificancy). The problem of the reception and critique of Castoriadis’s ideas in contemporary social thought is articulated (e.g. in Zygmunt Bauman’s theory of liquid modernity).