Table of Contents

1: Intellectuals and History
2: The "End of Philosophy"?
3: The Social-Historical: Mode of Being, Problems of Knowledge
4: Individual, Society, Rationality, History
5: The Greek Polis and the Creation of Democracy
6: The Nature and Value of Equality
7: Power, Politics, Autonomy
8: Reflections on "Rationality" and "Development"; Presentation and Response to Critics
9: The Crisis of Culture and the State
10: Dead End?
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"Excellent introduction to Castoriadis."--Manual M. Davenport, Texas A & M
"The author writes with a broad scope of vision and, at the same time, a depth needed to compare the important ideas considered. The work is bound to generate discussion among students in at least two fields; philosophy and political thought."--Keith R. David, William Jewell College
"The essays, most of them written during the past five years or so, show Castoriadis to be an extraordinarily wide-ranging social critic, prepared to grapple with some of the most complex and disturbing aspects of the late modern age....[T]hese essays are edifying reading."--Times Higher
"I only wish I had read Cornelius Castoriadis before, and I recommend him strongly....Marvellously compelling."--Political Studies
"Reading Castoriadis, is an urgent task. I cannot hope adequately to convey the exhilaration that following his conceptual trails induces. Here is a young and alert political philosopher."--J.J. Lecercle, Radical Philosophy
"The strength of these essays - has been a passionate promotion of the modernist vision of a self-reflective and self-realizing society."--Philosophical Reviews