Self Creation and Social Critique: Kierkegaard, Arendt, and Castoriadis on Thinking and Discourse
In this essay, I respond critically to two social phenomena: the unreflective repetition of values and the problem of a democracy in name only. After revealing the stakes of the project through an introduction to the three main thinkers and some central contemporary issues that are particularly illustrative of the focal problems, I devote the three middle chapters to an examination of the public space and indirect communication as found in the work of, respectively, Cornelius Castoriadis, Hannah Arendt, and Søren Kierkegaard. I argue that when taken in concert, these three figures present a cogent account of how people ought to cultivate an ethos of critique or resistance, while nonetheless acknowledging that political participation is itself a mode of form-giving, or stabilization of social relations. The delicate balance between form-giving and critical resistance becomes central to the project, as does the relationship between the public space (Castoriadis and Arendt) and indirect communication (Kierkegaard). Political action is ultimately an educative process that fuels the productive questioning of values and the undermining of foundational principles, two essential aspects of genuine democracy and active, lucid self-creation.
Philosophy, Arendt, Kierkegaard, Castoriadis, Social-Political Philosophy, Democracy, Self-Institution, Public Space
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