The Radical Tragic Imaginary: Castoriadis On Aeschylus & Sophocles

• Main Author: Nana Biluš Abaffy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cosmos and History Publishing Co-op. 2012-11-01
• Series: Cosmos and History : the Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy
• Subjects: Castoriadis; Aeschylus; Sophocles; Tragedy; Ancient Greece; Greek Imaginary; Democracy; Ethics; Justice
• Online Access: http://www.cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/281/510

Castoriadis’ entire colossal politico-philosophical-psychoanalytical project is based around the notion of radical autonomy, which, he argues, was most closely appropriated by the ancient Greek imaginary and the newly born dēmokratía. This paper critically examines Castoriadis’ treatment of the earliest democrats in the world—the ancient tragedians—and argues, contra Castoriadis, that it was Aeschylus, rather than Sophocles, that embodied the classical apotheosis of radical human autonomy.