The Radical Freedom of the Imaginary in Castoriadis

Abstract

Castoriadis's logic-ontology of Magmas provides the philosophical presupposition for a real democracy anchored on the radical freedom of the imaginary, the latter unfolding into an ontological novelty, manifested in nature, the psyche and the social-historical. As such, Castoriadis's radical freedom of the imaginary bears some groundbreaking philosophical, epistemological and political consequences. Firstly, it breaks with the "determinacy principle” that penetrates most part of traditional philosophy and modern science. Secondly, it introduces an alternative epistemological approach by rendering nature a for itself developing on the ontological conditions of permanent creation and destruction. Thirdly, and most importantly, it creates per se a new political paradigm, demonstrated in the project of individual and collective autonomy, which opposes equally, yet differently, both Marxism and liberalism, for it consists in the radicalization of democracy by means of a social freedom, aiming at the equal opportunity of the participation of people in politics.