Castoriadis: Education and Autonomy Praxis

Introduction

To talk about education, according to Castoriadis’s thinking, it is necessary to approach the key concepts that he coined in order to explain why a society is what it is. The social imaginary, the social-historical, and the autonomy project are the concepts needed to appreciate Castoriadis’s understanding about the society and its interaction. The purpose of this text it is to try to set a path to understand education from the point of view of the Castoridian theory.

Life and Thoughts

Cornelius Castoriadis was born in Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1922. He and his family had to move to Athens, where his mother was originally from, when he was only 4 months old, and he lived in Athens until the age of 23. During his time in Greece, he developed an interest in philosophy, politics, and Marxism. He studied economics, political science, and law in the University of Athens. In 1945, he was offered a scholarship to write a philosophy dissertation at the Sorbonne in Paris.

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