Cornelius Castoriadis (1922–1997) was a Greek philosopher, psychoanalyst, social theorist, and political activist who lived in France most of his life. For a long time, he was best known for his political writings in the group Socialisme ou Barbarie (Socialism or Barbarism), which he founded together with Claude Lefort, but his philosophical work is increasingly being introduced to a range of academic disciplines, such as education. His intellectual inspiration ranges from Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Max Weber to German idealism and the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty; but arguably most important was his lasting interest in Aristotle and the ancient Greeks. A key to the increasing interest in Castoriadis is his unique combination of political seriousness and scholarly sophistication, as reflected in his many-faceted, almost ...