Yavor Tarinski - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Yavor Tarinski

Towards Democratic and Ecological Cities, 2021

The creation of democratic and ecological cities is a question of radical social transformation. ... more The creation of democratic and ecological cities is a question of radical social transformation. The city has played an important role in human life from antiquity until nowadays. We cannot think of our future without thinking of the future of our urban inhabitant. Oversimplified proposals for the abandoning of city life and retreat to small villages and rural life have either lost touch with reality, or are being influenced by primitivism and its anti-political orientation. If we are to create democratic and ecological society, we will have to rethink and remake our cities along democratic and ecological lines.

The political ecology of Cornelius Castoriadis, 2018

Ecology was of great interest for Castoriadis, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century.... more Ecology was of great interest for Castoriadis, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century. In his later writings, Castoriadis incorporated ecology into his political project of autonomy, based on direct democracy. For Castoriadis ecology is political because it raises the fundamental question of our purpose in this world and of limiting ourselves in relation to one another and the world we have come to inhabit.

Kontradikce/Contradictions, 2023

The Kurdish Center for Studies, 2023

Who will Guard the Guardians: Direct Democracy as Suspicion of Authority, 2023

What does the future hold? Is the desertification of the planet, driven by state and corporate au... more What does the future hold? Is the desertification of the planet, driven by state and corporate authority, the final horizon of history? Is the dystopian future implied by the systemic degradation of nature and society inescapable? From marginal activist groups to governments and interstate organizations, all appear to be concerned with what the future of our shared world will look like. Yet even amid the ongoing global crisis caused by capitalism, the potential of a different, radically rooted future has also appeared. Common Futures explores the global emergence of twenty-first-century social movements, opposed to capitalism and state authority. These movements, Yavor Tarinski and Alexandros Schismenos show, transcend traditional political forms of organization and try to form autonomous networks premised on direct democracy and solidarity. The authors identify the importance of grassroots movements, which can bring radical change and create a more democratic and ecological future. Common Futures examines the social and political roots of the environmental crisis and the relationship between ecology and direct democracy. But Tarinski and Schismenos go beyond the analysis of crises, contemporary struggles, and social movements: Common Futures also clarifies the conditions for the re-creation of free public time and space and point to practical steps that we can take to alleviate the problems of our future.

We met Jacques Rancière on Saturday, May 27, 2017, at the School of Fine Arts shortly before his ... more We met Jacques Rancière on Saturday, May 27, 2017, at the School of Fine Arts shortly before his speech at the B-Fest 6 International Anti-Authoritarian Festival, organized by Babylonia Journal, with a central slogan “We are ungovernable”. Rancière is among the most important European philosophers alive and his work does not need further introductions. In the cloudy morning of Sunday 28 May, we sat beneath the Acropolis to have a coffee with the philosopher. The transcript of our conversation reflects the vigor of thought and the passion of a truly democratic thinker.

Cities Without Capitalism, 2021

not achieved by the mere additive function of accumulating information, although this is necessar... more not achieved by the mere additive function of accumulating information, although this is necessary, but rather it is a qualitative shift of consciousness. From the external other-oriented self to an internal centering of self that must be sharply distinguished from the experience of the narcissist. The internal weightiness is engaged with the Other as another being-in-time-and-place. The notion of the Commons is absent from the modern public vocabulary. Paradise Lost. Lost Horizon. The landscape of perpetual postponement. The search of the new anthropological type is the work of experimenting with and discovering psychological and bodily tactical mechanisms against the parent-child dyad. The institutions of modern Western society are not democratic because the people do not know what democracy is. Parents do not teach democracy because they do not know what democracy is. Schools do not teach democracy or allow in in any meaningful form. Schools teach obedience to authority. Work organized by capitalism teaches obedience to authority. The mass media does not teach democracy. It teaches consumerism and jingoism. Government itself does not teach democracy, but rather instead it teaches a parent-child power dynamic. Religion, again, does not teach democracy; instead demanding self-shaming obedience to authority. All domains of modern society demand and reward the infantilized careerist, or cynical opportunist, who actively selects between dollar secularism and theocratic delusions. The anarcho-therapeutic value of a great variety of autonomous zones should not be ignored. The autonomy project imagined by Cornelius Castoriadis forms the foundation of struggles towards a true, egalitarian democratic cooperative society. In his contributions to our comprehension of the dynamics between the individual and the polis, Castoriadis exhumed insights about the psychosocial landscape modulated by direct democracy. These important ideas are accurately, sensitively, courageously, and with scholarly clarity brought to us in the pages below by Yavor Tarinski. Such work bears witness to the modern human crisis manifested in the urgency to reveal profound truths about the breathtaking, brutal betrayal of the young. It is with great irony that Socrates was condemned to death on the false charge of having corrupted the youth of Athens. Out of the work of Cornelius Castoriadis, we recover the lost truths of the Oracles at Delphi. Life out of balance.

Cities beyond bureaucracy: Exploring commons-based strategies, 2021

Εκδόσεις Βαβυλωνία, 2019

Συγγράφουν: Ζακ Ρανσιέρ, Αντόνιο Νέγκρι, Lundimatin, Serge Quadruppani, Beyond Europe, Μιχάλης Λι... more Συγγράφουν: Ζακ Ρανσιέρ, Αντόνιο Νέγκρι, Lundimatin, Serge Quadruppani, Beyond Europe, Μιχάλης Λιανός, Αλέξανδρος Σχισμένος, Στέφανος Μπατσής, 1η Συνέλευση των Συνελεύσεων.
Επιλογή κειμένων: Νίκος Ιωάννου, Ιωάννα-Μαρία Μαραβελίδη, Στέφανος Μπατσής, Αλέξανδρος Σχισμένος, Γιάβορ Ταρίνσκι
Μεταφράσεις: Χρήστος Καραγιαννάκης, Στέφανος Μπατσής, Αναστάσης Ταραντίλης, Νίκος Χριστόπουλος
Επιμέλεια: Ιωάννα-Μαρία Μαραβελίδη
Σχεδιασμός: Αδελφός Κουφίωνας

The legacy of Cornelius Castoriadis contains invaluable germs for our troubled times. His politic... more The legacy of Cornelius Castoriadis contains invaluable germs for our troubled times. His political thought offers a holistic alternative to capitalist modernity. Castoriadis distinguishes two essential modes of societal organizing – heteronomy and autonomy. In one heteronomous society the laws and institutions that govern our lives derive from extra-social sources, outside of popular control and deliberation. On the other hand, under autonomy established institutional structures and rules are made collectively by all members of society and are therefore always open to challenge, reform and replacement.

It has come to be widely accepted that if one heteronomous, essentially hierarchical, order is suffocatively oppressive, then an autonomous one should be so relentlessly free so as to be incompatible with any form of regulation and organization. Autonomy thus wrongly becomes equated with unlimited individual freedom. It is true that autonomy cannot include limitation as we know it today, since the latter has come to be synonymous with austerity. But as every form of social organization, the autonomous one offers and determines roles, values, principles etc. and by doing so it creates certain limitations. But besides its negative side, this limitation plays positive role since it also suggests what should be done and determines certain significations that give meaning to life.

But unlike the limitation of heteronomy, predetermined and unchallangeable, the one that takes place in conditions of autonomy is self-imposed democratically by all members of society and open to alteration, or in other words self-limitation. Although every society sets certain limits to its individual members, this does not mean that the latter will necessarily sustain themselves within certain regulatory frame, in which case autonomy allows the attempt at convincing large enough segment of the population to change or expand certain limitations, instead of directly outlawing or forbidding dissent.

As an alternative that has been tried and tested in practice by communities past and present, the... more As an alternative that has been tried and tested in practice by communities past and present, the paradigm of the commons goes beyond the state and the market and implies the radical self-instituting of society, allowing citizens to directly manage their shared resources.

Direct democracy strives to dismantle the social separation between executives and implementators... more Direct democracy strives to dismantle the social separation between executives and implementators. Instead, it aims to create institutions which allow each and every member of society to directly participate in the decision-making on political, economic, social, ecological, etc., matters, which concerns him and to directly participate in their implementation. This gives space for a more complete realization of human potential. It have to be clarified that direct democracy is nothing like the different forms of “democracy” that we know to be implemented on massive, statist level, which are based on representative logic – deciding for someone else, who then to decide for you, which in no way is the same as deciding for yourself and your community by yourself and your community.

Towards Democratic and Ecological Cities, 2021

The creation of democratic and ecological cities is a question of radical social transformation. ... more The creation of democratic and ecological cities is a question of radical social transformation. The city has played an important role in human life from antiquity until nowadays. We cannot think of our future without thinking of the future of our urban inhabitant. Oversimplified proposals for the abandoning of city life and retreat to small villages and rural life have either lost touch with reality, or are being influenced by primitivism and its anti-political orientation. If we are to create democratic and ecological society, we will have to rethink and remake our cities along democratic and ecological lines.

The political ecology of Cornelius Castoriadis, 2018

Ecology was of great interest for Castoriadis, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century.... more Ecology was of great interest for Castoriadis, one of the great philosophers of the 20th century. In his later writings, Castoriadis incorporated ecology into his political project of autonomy, based on direct democracy. For Castoriadis ecology is political because it raises the fundamental question of our purpose in this world and of limiting ourselves in relation to one another and the world we have come to inhabit.

Kontradikce/Contradictions, 2023

The Kurdish Center for Studies, 2023

Who will Guard the Guardians: Direct Democracy as Suspicion of Authority, 2023

What does the future hold? Is the desertification of the planet, driven by state and corporate au... more What does the future hold? Is the desertification of the planet, driven by state and corporate authority, the final horizon of history? Is the dystopian future implied by the systemic degradation of nature and society inescapable? From marginal activist groups to governments and interstate organizations, all appear to be concerned with what the future of our shared world will look like. Yet even amid the ongoing global crisis caused by capitalism, the potential of a different, radically rooted future has also appeared. Common Futures explores the global emergence of twenty-first-century social movements, opposed to capitalism and state authority. These movements, Yavor Tarinski and Alexandros Schismenos show, transcend traditional political forms of organization and try to form autonomous networks premised on direct democracy and solidarity. The authors identify the importance of grassroots movements, which can bring radical change and create a more democratic and ecological future. Common Futures examines the social and political roots of the environmental crisis and the relationship between ecology and direct democracy. But Tarinski and Schismenos go beyond the analysis of crises, contemporary struggles, and social movements: Common Futures also clarifies the conditions for the re-creation of free public time and space and point to practical steps that we can take to alleviate the problems of our future.

We met Jacques Rancière on Saturday, May 27, 2017, at the School of Fine Arts shortly before his ... more We met Jacques Rancière on Saturday, May 27, 2017, at the School of Fine Arts shortly before his speech at the B-Fest 6 International Anti-Authoritarian Festival, organized by Babylonia Journal, with a central slogan “We are ungovernable”. Rancière is among the most important European philosophers alive and his work does not need further introductions. In the cloudy morning of Sunday 28 May, we sat beneath the Acropolis to have a coffee with the philosopher. The transcript of our conversation reflects the vigor of thought and the passion of a truly democratic thinker.

Cities Without Capitalism, 2021

not achieved by the mere additive function of accumulating information, although this is necessar... more not achieved by the mere additive function of accumulating information, although this is necessary, but rather it is a qualitative shift of consciousness. From the external other-oriented self to an internal centering of self that must be sharply distinguished from the experience of the narcissist. The internal weightiness is engaged with the Other as another being-in-time-and-place. The notion of the Commons is absent from the modern public vocabulary. Paradise Lost. Lost Horizon. The landscape of perpetual postponement. The search of the new anthropological type is the work of experimenting with and discovering psychological and bodily tactical mechanisms against the parent-child dyad. The institutions of modern Western society are not democratic because the people do not know what democracy is. Parents do not teach democracy because they do not know what democracy is. Schools do not teach democracy or allow in in any meaningful form. Schools teach obedience to authority. Work organized by capitalism teaches obedience to authority. The mass media does not teach democracy. It teaches consumerism and jingoism. Government itself does not teach democracy, but rather instead it teaches a parent-child power dynamic. Religion, again, does not teach democracy; instead demanding self-shaming obedience to authority. All domains of modern society demand and reward the infantilized careerist, or cynical opportunist, who actively selects between dollar secularism and theocratic delusions. The anarcho-therapeutic value of a great variety of autonomous zones should not be ignored. The autonomy project imagined by Cornelius Castoriadis forms the foundation of struggles towards a true, egalitarian democratic cooperative society. In his contributions to our comprehension of the dynamics between the individual and the polis, Castoriadis exhumed insights about the psychosocial landscape modulated by direct democracy. These important ideas are accurately, sensitively, courageously, and with scholarly clarity brought to us in the pages below by Yavor Tarinski. Such work bears witness to the modern human crisis manifested in the urgency to reveal profound truths about the breathtaking, brutal betrayal of the young. It is with great irony that Socrates was condemned to death on the false charge of having corrupted the youth of Athens. Out of the work of Cornelius Castoriadis, we recover the lost truths of the Oracles at Delphi. Life out of balance.

Cities beyond bureaucracy: Exploring commons-based strategies, 2021

Εκδόσεις Βαβυλωνία, 2019

Συγγράφουν: Ζακ Ρανσιέρ, Αντόνιο Νέγκρι, Lundimatin, Serge Quadruppani, Beyond Europe, Μιχάλης Λι... more Συγγράφουν: Ζακ Ρανσιέρ, Αντόνιο Νέγκρι, Lundimatin, Serge Quadruppani, Beyond Europe, Μιχάλης Λιανός, Αλέξανδρος Σχισμένος, Στέφανος Μπατσής, 1η Συνέλευση των Συνελεύσεων.
Επιλογή κειμένων: Νίκος Ιωάννου, Ιωάννα-Μαρία Μαραβελίδη, Στέφανος Μπατσής, Αλέξανδρος Σχισμένος, Γιάβορ Ταρίνσκι
Μεταφράσεις: Χρήστος Καραγιαννάκης, Στέφανος Μπατσής, Αναστάσης Ταραντίλης, Νίκος Χριστόπουλος
Επιμέλεια: Ιωάννα-Μαρία Μαραβελίδη
Σχεδιασμός: Αδελφός Κουφίωνας

The legacy of Cornelius Castoriadis contains invaluable germs for our troubled times. His politic... more The legacy of Cornelius Castoriadis contains invaluable germs for our troubled times. His political thought offers a holistic alternative to capitalist modernity. Castoriadis distinguishes two essential modes of societal organizing – heteronomy and autonomy. In one heteronomous society the laws and institutions that govern our lives derive from extra-social sources, outside of popular control and deliberation. On the other hand, under autonomy established institutional structures and rules are made collectively by all members of society and are therefore always open to challenge, reform and replacement.

It has come to be widely accepted that if one heteronomous, essentially hierarchical, order is suffocatively oppressive, then an autonomous one should be so relentlessly free so as to be incompatible with any form of regulation and organization. Autonomy thus wrongly becomes equated with unlimited individual freedom. It is true that autonomy cannot include limitation as we know it today, since the latter has come to be synonymous with austerity. But as every form of social organization, the autonomous one offers and determines roles, values, principles etc. and by doing so it creates certain limitations. But besides its negative side, this limitation plays positive role since it also suggests what should be done and determines certain significations that give meaning to life.

But unlike the limitation of heteronomy, predetermined and unchallangeable, the one that takes place in conditions of autonomy is self-imposed democratically by all members of society and open to alteration, or in other words self-limitation. Although every society sets certain limits to its individual members, this does not mean that the latter will necessarily sustain themselves within certain regulatory frame, in which case autonomy allows the attempt at convincing large enough segment of the population to change or expand certain limitations, instead of directly outlawing or forbidding dissent.

As an alternative that has been tried and tested in practice by communities past and present, the... more As an alternative that has been tried and tested in practice by communities past and present, the paradigm of the commons goes beyond the state and the market and implies the radical self-instituting of society, allowing citizens to directly manage their shared resources.

Direct democracy strives to dismantle the social separation between executives and implementators... more Direct democracy strives to dismantle the social separation between executives and implementators. Instead, it aims to create institutions which allow each and every member of society to directly participate in the decision-making on political, economic, social, ecological, etc., matters, which concerns him and to directly participate in their implementation. This gives space for a more complete realization of human potential. It have to be clarified that direct democracy is nothing like the different forms of “democracy” that we know to be implemented on massive, statist level, which are based on representative logic – deciding for someone else, who then to decide for you, which in no way is the same as deciding for yourself and your community by yourself and your community.

Direct Democracy: Context, Society, Individuality, 2019

If social activism is to realistically take on ‘the question of power’ it must be carried out fro... more If social activism is to realistically take on ‘the question of power’ it must be carried out from a knowing ‘holistic’ assault on all social spheres of society. This is the challenging premise that Yavor Tarinski proposes in this very timely ‘provocation to action’, Direct Democracy: Context, Society, Individuality.

Tarinski traces the philosophical and political reasoning of works from Cornelius Castoriadis, Murray Bookchin, and others, in an almost pragmatically presented case for a radical direct democratic ‘organisational basis of our society’. He applies a considered focus on the ‘contextuality’ of historical as well as existing examples of direct democracy as ‘tests’ to his argument that explicitly recognises the complex interrelationship between the individual and society. The book concludes with an open-ended sense of persistence in realizing the kinds of institutions we need to reinstitute and collectively claim power over.

ISBN 978-1-9162314-0-5

Βαβυλωνία, 2018

Βρεθήκαμε με την Κριστίν Ρος το πρωί της 27ης Μαΐου 2018 για έναν κυριακάτικο καφέ στο Παγκράτι κ... more Βρεθήκαμε με την Κριστίν Ρος το πρωί της 27ης Μαΐου
2018 για έναν κυριακάτικο καφέ στο Παγκράτι και έναν
περίπατο στο ιστορικό κέντρο της πόλης. Το προηγούμενο βράδυ είχε πραγματοποιηθεί η κεντρική της ομιλία στη
Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών, στα πλαίσια του B-FEST 7, με θέμα «Ο Μάης του ’68 & η Συνέχειά του: Πού Πηγαίνει η
Δημοκρατία;». Εκεί αναζωπυρώθηκε το ενδιαφέρον μας
γύρω από τα ερωτήματα και τις ρωγμές που προκάλεσε
ο Μάης παγκοσμίως κι έτσι αποφασίσαμε να δημιουργήσουμε εκ νέου τον χώρο και τον χρόνο για τη συνέχεια
του διαλόγου μας...

“City & Ecology”: Dialogues with Brian Tokar and Dimitris Roussopoulos, 2022

In this edition, the editorial team of Aftoleksi talks to Brian Tokar and Dimitris Roussopoulos, ... more In this edition, the editorial team of Aftoleksi talks to Brian Tokar and Dimitris Roussopoulos, two influential figures from the North American movement for social ecology – a theoretical body that focuses on the direct relationship between the political organization of society and our attitudes towards nature.

Key topics of discussion include climate change, energy management, the imaginary of economic growth, and the right to the city. In our own historical era, the character of urgency is appropriate as global warming is now an inescapable horizon. In the face of ecological and social catastrophe, the concept of climate justice, introduced by Tokar himself, is more relevant than ever.

We are also discussing the city and the possibility of building networks of solidarity and direct democracy in the urban fabric, recreating the free public space with democratic institutions of self-government. Rousopoulos’ account of his experience, from the self-managed neighbourhood of Milton Parc in Montreal, and the project of libertarian minucipalism is a historical legacy for contemporary movements.

We undertook this project as we firmly believe that ecological and urban issues are vital to the present and future of our presence on the planet. And we have chosen to speak with these thinkers, who have been warning for decades about the destructive direction of our societies, proposing a radical way forward towards a direct-democratic and ecological social institution.

Participants in the dialogues: Ioanna Maravelidi, Peter Piperkov, Dimitris Roussopoulos, Alexandros Schismenos, Yavor Tarinski, Brian Tokar.

We present to you the new publication from TRISE, entitled Asking questions with the Zapatistas: ... more We present to you the new publication from TRISE, entitled Asking questions with the Zapatistas: Reflections from Greece on our Civilizational Impasse, authored by TRISE members Theodoros Karyotis, Ioanna-Maria Maravelidi, and Yavor Tarinski.

Editor: Matthew Little | Cover: Apollon Petropoulos | Design: George Chelebiev

Publisher: Transnational Institute of Social Ecology (TRISE) | Year: 2022
In their collextive text, Karyotis, Maravelidi, and Tarinski reflect on the arrival of the Zapatista delegation from the point of view of the European, and in particular Greek, grassroots movements. They ponder the historical and current importance of Zapatismo and its influence on the development of political contestation in Europe and in Greece. The authors attempt to highlight the aspects of Zapatismo that have contributed to movement theory and praxis and have provided inspiration for generations of activists and collectives. They also enumerate other political projects that resonate and enmesh with Zapatismo to produce novel emancipatory practices. The authors attempt at examining the obstacles and pitfalls in ‘translating’ the Zapatista experience to European urban contexts. Finally, Karyotis, Maravelidi, and Tarinski explore some of the paths that may lead us forward in the pursuit of social emancipation.

This is the extended English-language original of the Spanish-language pocketbook Preguntando con los zapatistas. Reflexiones desde Grecia sobre nuestro impasse civilizatorio, published in Spanish by Cooperative Editorial Retos, Cátedra Jorge Alonso, Universidad de Guadalajara, and Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales in 2022.

It is part of the 28-pocketbook collection Al Faro Zapatista in commemoration of more than 500 years of resistance, 28 years of public life, and the Journey for Life!

Black Rose Books, 2021

What does the future hold? Is the desertification of the planet, driven by state and corporate au... more What does the future hold? Is the desertification of the planet, driven by state and corporate authority, the final horizon of history? Is the dystopian future implied by the systemic degradation of nature and society inescapable? From marginal activist groups to governments and interstate organizations, all appear to be concerned with what the future of our shared world will look like. Yet even amid the ongoing global crisis caused by capitalism, the potential of a different, radically rooted future has also appeared.

Common Futures explores the global emergence of twenty-first-century social movements, opposed to capitalism and state authority. These movements, Yavor Tarinski and Alexandros Schismenos show, transcend traditional political forms of organization and try to form autonomous networks premised on direct democracy and solidarity. The authors identify the importance of grassroots movements, which can bring radical change and create a more democratic and ecological future.

Common Futures examines the social and political roots of the environmental crisis and the relationship between ecology and direct democracy. But Tarinski and Schismenos go beyond the analysis of crises, contemporary struggles, and social movements: Common Futures also clarifies the conditions for the re-creation of free public time and space and point to practical steps that we can take to alleviate the problems of our future.

Short Introduction to the Political Legacy of Castoriadis, 2020

The analysis offered by Cornelius Castoriadis remains, more than 20 years after his death, as rel... more The analysis offered by Cornelius Castoriadis remains, more than 20 years after his death, as relevant as ever before. This is so as he manages to detect with high accuracy the problems that still surround us and the ongoing crisis of insignificance. From the beginning of his writings he reveals the inherent problems of bureaucracy, the logic of political representation, the consumerist culture and the capitalist paradigm of unlimited economic growth. This criticism of his remains evidently abreast with our time.

The project of autonomy, which Castoriadis saw as a possible alternative, forms the foundational basis of struggles towards a true democratic and ecological society. In his contributions to our comprehension of the dynamics between the individual and the polis, he exhumed insights about the psychosocial landscape modulated by direct democracy.

This political legacy is accurately, sensitively, courageously, and with scholarly clarity brought to us in the following pages by Yavor Tarinski. This book is not simply a tribute to the work of one great philosopher, but a call to action – just as what Castoriadis’s philosophy always was.

Εκδόσεις Βαβυλωνία, 2017

Συναντήσαμε τον Ζακ Ρανσιέρ το Σάββατο της 27ης Μαΐου 2017 στη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών, λίγο πριν από ... more Συναντήσαμε τον Ζακ Ρανσιέρ το Σάββατο της 27ης Μαΐου 2017 στη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών, λίγο πριν από την ομιλία του στο Διεθνές Αντιεξουσιαστικό Φεστιβάλ B-Fest 6, που διοργάνωσε το περιοδικό Βαβυλωνία με κεντρικό σύνθημα «We are ungovernable». Όπως γρήγορα καταλάβαμε, ο Ρανσιέρ, ίσως ο πιο σημαντικός εν ζωή Ευρωπαίος φιλόσοφος, γνώριζε πολύ καλά τι σημαίνει αυτό το σύνθημα. Το έργο του Ζακ Ρανσιέρ δεν χρειάζεται συστάσεις. Αυτό που μας εντυπωσίασε βαθιά είναι η συνέπεια του ανθρώπου προς τον φιλόσοφο, η συνέπεια της προσωπικότητας προς το έργο, του βίου προς τις αξίες. Τις αξίες της ισότητας και της ελευθερίας, που προϋποθέτουν η μία την άλλη και είναι αδιαχώριστες στη βάση του προτάγματος της πραγματικής δημοκρατίας. Ο Ρανσιέρ υπερασπίστηκε αυτές τις αξίες, τη δημιουργία ενός άλλου κόσμου, ενάντια στον κόσμο της χειραγώγησης και της εκμετάλλευσης, και μία άλλη Ιστορία, την Ιστορία της χειραφέτησης.

Η Κυριακή 28 Μαΐου ήταν συννεφιασμένη, σαν να πήρε παριζιάνικο ύφος, πάνω από την Ακρόπολη, ενώ πίναμε τον πρωινό μας καφέ μαζί με τον Ζακ Ρανσιέρ αγναντεύοντας την αρχαία αγορά. Η απομαγνητοφώνηση της συζήτησής μας που ακολουθεί αποδίδει την ενάργεια της σκέψης, μα όχι το ζωντανό πάθος και την αφοπλιστική απλότητα του Γάλλου φιλοσόφου, το πάθος και την απλότητα ενός δημοκρατικού στοχαστή.

Εκδόσεις Βαβυλωνία, 2017

Το 2017 είναι η χρονιά που συμπληρώνονται είκοσι έτη από τον θάνατο του σπουδαίου φιλοσόφου Κορνή... more Το 2017 είναι η χρονιά που συμπληρώνονται είκοσι έτη από τον θάνατο του σπουδαίου φιλοσόφου Κορνήλιου Καστοριάδη, ο οποίος πέθανε στο Παρίσι στις 26 Δεκεμβρίου του 1997.

Όπως σημείωνε ο ίδιος, αναφερόμενος στη Χάνα Άρεντ, δεν υπάρχει καλύτερος τρόπος για να τιμήσει κανείς έναν στοχαστή από το να ασχοληθεί σοβαρά και ενεργά με το έργο του.

Είναι σαφές ότι η παρούσα μικρή ανθολόγηση δεν μπορεί να υποκαταστήσει τη συστηματική μελέτη ενός έργου πολυσχιδούς, πρωτότυπου και βαθυστόχαστου.

Ελπίζουμε, όμως, ότι τα αποσπάσματα, τα οποία επιλέχθηκαν με στόχο να δίνουν μια πρώτη, αλλά σαφή, ιδέα για το πώς προσέγγιζε ο Καστοριάδης τη δημοκρατία και την ελευθερία, μπορούν να λειτουργήσουν για τους αναγνώστες σαν μικρά σπέρματα που προτρέπουν στην αναζήτηση της αυτονομίας, κοινωνικής και ατομικής. Κι ακόμη, να ωθήσουν σε διεξοδικότερη ενασχόληση με το έργο του φιλοσόφου, και στη συνέχεια σε γόνιμο και κριτικό διάλογο μαζί του, ώστε να αναδειχθεί η μεγάλη σημασία και επικαιρότητα της καστοριαδικής σκέψης.

Εκδόσεις Βαβυλωνία, 2018

The brochure of Babylonia “A Coffee with Kristin Ross: On the continuations of May ‘68” is now av... more The brochure of Babylonia “A Coffee with Kristin Ross: On the continuations of May ‘68” is now available for download in English. It contains the dialogue between Babylonia’s editorial team and Ross, during B-Fest 7 2018, on democracy, social movements, social change, what remains alive from May ‘68 and much more. Originally published in Greek in December 2018.

We met Kristin Ross in the morning of 27 May 2018 for a Sunday coffee at the historic center of Athens. The previous night she had given her keynote speech entitled “May ’68 & its continuation”, at the international antiauthoritarian festival B-Fest 7. Her talk raised our interest in the questions and cracks that were opened worldwide by the May events, and thus we decided on the following day to recreate the space and time for the continuation of this exchange.

During our dialogue with Kristin Ross, which is being presented below, we speak about the continuations of May ’68 and the future of real democracy. She detects the pieces of what remains alive from the ’68 beyond the official constructs of memory and commemorations. Which are the invisible aspects of the period and when they become socially visible? Which is the democratic thread that can connect the Paris Commune of 1871, May ’68 and the contemporary movements like zad and the squares? How could all of them be situated in the criticism towards the bureaucratic fragmentation of everyday life, with the aim of emancipation? These are some of the questions we explored together with Ross.

Εκδόσεις Ευρασία, 2018

Ο Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης (1922-1997) υπήρξε ένας από τους σημαντικότερους φιλοσόφους του 20ού αιών... more Ο Κορνήλιος Καστοριάδης (1922-1997) υπήρξε ένας από τους σημαντικότερους φιλοσόφους του 20ού αιώνα. Σήμερα, δύο δεκαετίες μετά τον θάνατό του, οι ιδέες του συζητιούνται εντονότερα από ποτέ, καθώς καθίστανται επίκαιρες από τα ίδια τα πολιτικά και υπαρξιακά προβλήματα που ανακύπτουν στην πραγματικότητα των σύγχρονων κοινωνιών. Στην τιτάνεια προσπάθειά του να σκεφτεί και να διαυγάσει κάθε πεδίο και κάθε στιβάδα του είναι, ο Καστοριάδης έσπασε τα θεσμισμένα στεγανά της γνώσης, συνδυάζοντας φαινομενικά διαχωρισμένα αντικείμενα, όπως η πολιτική σκέψη και πράξη, η φιλοσοφία, η τέχνη, η ψυχανάλυση, η ιστορία, η επιστήμη. Τα κείμενα του τόμου επιχειρούν να τον ακολουθήσουν σε αυτή του τη διαδρομή και να συνομιλήσουν με τη σκέψη του, φωτίζοντας ερωτήματα από όλα τα πεδία με τα οποία καταπιάστηκε. Τι είναι η ψυχή και το ανθρώπινο υποκείμενο; Ποιο το νόημα της άμεσης δημοκρατίας και της συλλογικής και ατομικής αυτονομίας; Τι ρόλο παίζει η οντολογία του μάγματος, της δημιουργίας και της ανάδυσης τόσο στον κοινωνικό, όσο και στον φυσικό και βιολογικό κόσμο; Πώς επηρέασε τον Καστοριάδη η αγάπη του για την τέχνη; Με ποιους στοχαστές συνομίλησε προκειμένου να δημιουργήσει το δικό του φιλοσοφικό σύμπαν; Πώς μπορούμε να σκεφτούμε μέσα από τις έννοιές του το δικό μας παρόν;

Εκδόσεις Βαβυλωνία, 2018

Ο Καστοριάδης διαμόρφωσε μια καινούργια, ανοιχτή πρόταση για τον ριζικό μετασχηματισμό της κοινων... more Ο Καστοριάδης διαμόρφωσε μια καινούργια, ανοιχτή πρόταση για τον ριζικό μετασχηματισμό της κοινωνίας-όχι με κάποιο μανιφέστο, αλλά μαθαίνοντάς μας να απελευθερωνόμαστε εμείς οι ίδιοι, κάθε φορά που εγκλωβιζόμαστε στον εαυτό μας.

Ένας καφές με τον Ζακ Ρανσιέρ κάτω από την Ακρόπολη - Βαβυλωνία, 2017

We met Jacques Rancière on Saturday, May 27, 2017, at the School of Fine Arts shortly before his ... more We met Jacques Rancière on Saturday, May 27, 2017, at the School of Fine Arts shortly before his speech at the B-Fest 6 International Anti-Authoritarian Festival, organized by Babylonia Journal, with a central slogan “We are ungovernable”. Rancière is among the most important European philosophers alive and his work does not need further introductions.

In the cloudy morning of Sunday 28 May, we sat beneath the Acropolis to have a coffee with the philosopher. The transcript of our conversation reflects the vigor of thought and the passion of a truly democratic thinker.

1 "The crisis of modern society": a talk given by 'Paul Cardan' (Cornelius Castoriadis). Issued a... more 1 "The crisis of modern society": a talk given by 'Paul Cardan' (Cornelius Castoriadis). Issued as a pamphlet by Solidarity (London) a month later in June 1965. (Solidarity pamphlet No. 23).