Table Of ContentEdited and Translated by
David Ames Curtis
Swnford
Univmity
Pms
Stanford
Californui
2002
ON PLATO'S STATESMAN
Cornelius Castoriadis
Assistance for the translation was provided by the French
Ministry of Culture.
011 P'4to's ~StAttsm4n·wu originally published. in Frcnc.h in
1999 under the tide SMr ·u Polihf/w· J.t P'4ton. 0 Editions du
Scuil, September 1999.
Stanford UniversicyPrcs.s
Stanford, California
English translation e 1001 by the Board ofTrwtees of the
Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights ic:scrvcd.
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Castoriadis, Corncliw.
[Sur Le politique de Platon. English]
On Plato's Statesman I by Corncliw Castoriaclis ; edited and
translated by David Ames Cunis.
p. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0--8047-4144-1 (alk. papcr)-ISBN o--80-47-4141-.1.
(pbk. , uk. P'P">
I. Plato. Statesman I. Cunis, David Ames. II. Tide
JC71.P314.C37 1001
,10·.01---de11
Original Printing 1001
last figure below indicates year of this printing:
II 10 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 0-4 ~ ~
Ty pcw-t by Alan Noyes
tn 10.9/23 Adobe Garamond and Llthos Display
Contents
&olts by Cornelius Ca.storiadis in English xi
Foreword: Castoriadi.J and th~ Statesman xiii
Pierre Vid41-Naquet
Introduction: "Living Thought at WorW" xix
Pa.seal Vemay
On th~ Translation XXV
SEMINAR OF FEBRUARY 19, 1986
Plato's Statesman
I. Date and Situation of the Stat~sman 11
II. Object and Structure of the Srausma.n 19
Summary ofth, Carving Up ofth, Statc,man 28
SEMINAR OF FEBRUARY 26, 1986 29
Resumption and Anticipation 29
Ill. The Two Definitions 31
First Definition:
Th, S,ar,sman a.s Pa.stor ofH uman Floclts 33
Second Definition:
Th, Stlltmnan, th, Royal Man, a.s W..awr 40
Question 48
Missing page
Contmts ix
SEMINAR OF APRIL 13, 1986 llj
V. The Three Digressions (Continued) 126
First Dit;"ssion:
Th, Myth ofth, R.tign ofC ronus (Continued) 126
Second Digmsion:
Th, Form ofR .tgimts (Continued) 117
Third Digmsion:
Scimu Alone DqiMs the Stausman 119
Questions 147
SEMINAR OF APRIL 30, 1986 153
V. The Three Digressions (Continued) 153
Third Dit;"ssion:
Scimct Alone Defin,s th, Statmn4n (Continued) 153
Second Digression:
Th, Form ofR ,gimts (R.tprist) 161
VI. Conclusion: On the Composition of che Statesman 164
Questions 168
Trans'4tori AfttrWOrd 173
Nous 187
/nd,x 199
Books by Cornelius Castoriadis in English
CL CrosmNlds in the IAbyrinth, trans. Manin H. Ryle and Kace Soper
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Prcs.s; Brighton, UK: Harvester Press,
1984).
CR The GutoruzdU &adrr, ed. David Ames Curtis (Oxford, UK, and
Malden, Mass., Blackwell, 1997).
115 The fm4gi,wry Institution ofSo&ty (1975), trans. Kathleen Blarney
(Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press and Cambridge, UK: Policy Press,
1987; cor. paperback edition, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1997
and Cambridge, Mass., MIT Picss, 1998).
PPA PhiUnophy. Politics, Autonomy, ed. David Ames Curtis (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1991).
PSW1 Politic11J and SocuJ Writingr, vol. 1, 1946--1955: From the Critiq~ of
B"""UcrtUJ to tM Positiw Conknt ofSoCUlfum, trans. and ed. David
Ames Curtis (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988).
PSW2 Political and SocUll Writin,rr, vol. 2, 1955-1960: From the Workt'rl
StrUggk Ag11inst Bu~llUcrtUJ to Rrvo/ution in thr Age ofM odern Cap
i'41itm, trans. and ed. David Ames Cunis (Minneapolis: Universiry
ofMinncsora Press, 1988).
PSW3 Politi"t/ t1Ni Socutl Writingr, vol. J, 196I-1979: Rr(ommrncing the
Rrvolurion: From Soci4fum to UN AMto,wmous Society, trans. and ed.
David Ames Cunis (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1993).
xii Abbrroiations
WIF Worki in Fmfl!lma: Writ;ngi-on Politics, Socirty. Ayt"hoatu1/ysis, tlnd
the lmagiru,tion, ed. and trans. David Ame, Curtis (Stanford: Stan
ford University Press, 1997).
N .B.· An extensive bibliography of writings by and about Cascoriad.is in a
dozen languages can be found at the Corndiw Cascoriadis/ Agora Inter
national Website, http://aleph.lib.ohio-sracc.edu/bcasc/castoriadis.
Foreword
Castoriadis and th, Statesman
PIERRE V!DAL-NAQUET
This small book has a history that makes a lovely story. h started out as
a Ca.noriadis seminar on one of Plato's most difficult dialogues, the Staks
m4n, recorded on audiotape week after week between February 19 and
April 30, 1986, before an audience of studencs from the t.cole des Hautes
~tudcs en Sciences Sodales.
A first raw draft of the transcription was made by Pase.a.I Vernay, with
the collaboration of three of his friends, in 1991, and submitted to Cor
nelius, whom we called Corneille. He was at once surprised ("I didn't
know that I had written a nc:w book"), delighted, and severe, as he was to
ward himself. Since that time, the text has been reworked, filled in, and
clarified on a few poincs of detail. Thw was born, while Corneille was still
alive, a ream whose collaboration continues afccr his death and chat pro
poses to publish in their entirety, and with the requisite rigor, chc semi
nars led by Cornelius Cascoriad.is. An encyclopedic task if there ever was
one.
Vernay tells us the basics in his lntroduction. Of his work, I can say what
he could not say: how remarkable it is, and in what way it is so. Plato is an
author who condemned writing, a perverse gift of the Egyptian god Thoth,
in the Phaedrw and also, as a matter of faa, in the Sl4tm714n. The written
law c.annot hold its own vis-a-vis science as embodied in che philosopher
in power. The poets arc co be chased from the city of the Rrpublii:; and
writing is only a deutrros plow, a second best, a lesser ~ii in relation to liv
ing speech and memory. Between impossible speech and theoretical writ
ing, Plato chose a sublime compromise: the dialogue. The dialogue is to
>,. speech what myth is to truch. The transcription of Castoriadis's seminar
we owe to Vernay is the result of a similar compromise; it is certainly
