After Council Communism: The Post-War Rediscovery of the Council Tradition
Muldoon, J
Date: 31 March 2020
Journal
Intellectual History Review
Publisher
Taylor & Francis (Routledge) for International Society for Intellectual History
Publisher DOI
Abstract
This article traces a discontinuous tradition of council thought from the Dutch and German council communist tendencies of the 1920s to its re-emergence in the writings of three important mid-twentieth century political theorists: Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort and Hannah Arendt. It connects an intellectual history of the council ...
This article traces a discontinuous tradition of council thought from the Dutch and German council communist tendencies of the 1920s to its re-emergence in the writings of three important mid-twentieth century political theorists: Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort and Hannah Arendt. It connects an intellectual history of the council concept in post-war Europe with a political history of the small revolutionary groups that fostered council-related political activity during this era. It claims that as the experience of the European council movements began to be interpreted within a new political context, this gave rise to several radically altered forms of council thought. In this more subjectivist and praxis-oriented tradition, the councils became a utopian placeholder for theorists to explore their particular interests in human creativity (Castoriadis), self-limiting power (Lefort), and political freedom (Arendt). This analysis develops our understanding of the continuities and ruptures of the council tradition within political thought.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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