ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the relationship between violence and the ethical-political, which also delineates the ways in which myths operate to create a society. It argues that the general strike is anarchic because it radically and non-violently deprives the State not only of recognition per se, but also, more specifically, its claim to be in the only position from which to judge and order the world. The book shows that for Castoriadis, the individual is composed of a tension between the screaming little monster called the psychic monad and the social imaginary of its society. It also argues that Sartre accepts that violence is inherent to the socio-political world and notes that the nature of Sartre’s treatment of this issue has generated significant debate in the literature.
