The Power to Assume Form: Cornelius Castoriadis and Regimes of Historicity

The Power to Assume Form: Cornelius Castoriadis and Regulative Regimes of Historicity examines the major contribution of Cornelius Castoriadis’s work, which elucidated the role of the social imaginary within human societies. What is significant, Sean McMorrow argues, is that Castoriadis’s work presents a unique perspective on the regimes of historicity; modes of instituting power that establish the legitimacy of institutional order in relation to the extensive social imaginary articulations of the world. The author assesses Castoriadis’s theorization of the radically creative capacity of the social imaginary and suggests that there remains a tendency to present an overly dichotomous view of autonomous and heteronomous modes of institution. McMorrow assesses how adherence to this inclination hinders the development of further insights into the creative capacities of social imaginary, while also imposing limits on Castoriadis’s own assessment of the ‘partially’ autonomous situation of modern societies. The author suggests that one way forward is to consider the role of an implicit dimension of instituting power, involved in the reproduction of dominant social imaginary articulations of the world, and which also shape the regulation of historicity more generally. The main purpose of this book is to develop the critical depth of Castoriadis’s work, showing how it remains an insightful framework to analyze the significance of the deepening depoliticization of contemporary ‘liberal-democratic’ regimes and the ‘partially’ autonomous dynamics that underlie their shift toward increasingly authoritarian modes of governance.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: The Imaginary Institution of Anthropos: Articulating the Regions of Human Subjectivity Chapter 2: The Institution of Societies and the Social-Historical World: Historicity and Ontological Form Chapter 3: The Social Imaginary, Power and Historicity: The Political Dimension of Societies Chapter 4: Autonomy and Social-Historical Alteration Chapter 5: Liberal-Democratic Regimes: The Institutional Conditions of Depoliticisation

About the Author :
Sean McMorrow is Editor of Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy

Review :
The theory of the radical imaginary developed by Castoriadis as an alternative to Marxist theory has not been received and discussed as it deserves. Sean McMorrow's book is a valuable contribution in this regard. It achieves the tour de force of providing a striking synthesis of clarity and depth to one of the most original historical and political thoughts of our time. Through a fascinating explication of Castoriadis’s theorisation of historicity, McMorrow examines the role of cultural articulation within heteronomous/autonomous processes and clarifies the depoliticising role of modern liberal political regimes by proposing an important corrective to Castoriadis’s analysis of the social imaginary instituting power of societies. Anyone troubled by the deepening authoritarianism of neoliberal societies will learn a great deal from this highly illuminating study. Sean McMorrow’s The Power to Assume Form is an essential and imaginative contribution to contemporary social theory. It revolves around the question regarding the creativity of human action and the potential of contemporary societies for the cultivation of individual and collective autonomy. To that end, the author offers readers a creative interpretation of Castoriadis’s works, which he brings in dialogue with the hermeneutic tradition, while endorsing the perspective of social imaginaries and capitalizing on the notion of regimes of historicity. A highly rewarding book. “The Power to Assume Form: Cornelius Castoriadis and Regimes of Historicity by Sean McMorrow is a major contribution to the international discussion of Castoriadis´s work. It combines an insightful and critical account of Castoriadis´s overall project with a more specific argument concerning his incomplete theory of power and ways of developing it. The analysis of connections between power and autonomy is especially relevant to contemporary debates.”