Bio: (1922-1997) Greek philosopher. Cornelius Castoriadis was a communist and a Trotskyist in his youth. In 1945 he left Greece for Paris. He later abandoned Trotskyism and formed a group and magazine called Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism) (1949-1967). This group and its newspaper advocated workers' self-management and were a source of inspiration for the great protests of 1968. In the 1960s, he served as an economist at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), after which he began working as a psychotherapist.

He is known for studying autonomous societies. These are societies that actors can change or reform by thinking about them. There were only two types of autonomous societies in history, both self-organizing with a strong civil order. The first type was the ancient polis, while the second type appeared after the twelfth century in Western Europe. Autonomous societies are characterized by high levels of artistic and scientific achievements, which is a consequence of the imagination needed to maintain this type of society. Self-organizing autonomous societies are characterized by orderliness, and imagination is responsible for creating laws and norms. The decline of creativity in the West, after 1950, in his opinion, is a consequence of the spread of postmodern conformism.

Main works

Mai 68: la brèche (1968);

La Société bureaucratique (1973);

L'Expérience du mouvement ouvrier (1974);

L'Institution imaginaire de la société (1975);

Les Carrefours du labyrinthe (1978);

Le Contenu du socialisme (1979);

Capitalisme moderne et révolution  (1979);

De l'écologie à l'autonomie (1981);

Devant la guerre (1981);

Domaines de l'homme (1986);

Le Monde morcelé (1990);

La Montée de l'insignifiance (1996).