Meaning, Historicity, and the Social: A Critical Approach to the Works of Heidegger, Gadamer, and Castoriadis

This book is a response to the absence of a systematic and critical engagement with the notions of meaning, historicity and the social in contemporary social science and philosophy. It draws on a wide range of writings from classical and contemporary social theory and philosophy and aims to offer a novel understanding of these concepts. These notions have always fascinated social and political thought, but it was with the nineteenth century philosophies of history that the systematic linking of meaning, history and society reached its apex. The collapse of these grand theoretical frameworks signified also the disenchantment with these notions. Thus, there is an abundance of theoretical perspectives of the social sciences and philosophy that find pride in celebrating the bankruptcy of the notions of meaning and historicity in face of the liquidation of the social fabric experienced by the inhabitants of advanced capitalist societies. This book aims to re-conceptualise meaning, historicity and the social in their belonging-together and to show their importance for contemporary thought.

Angelos Mouzakitis (MA, PhD University of Warwick, UK) was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (2003-2004). His research and teaching expertise lie in the fields of social theory and philosophical phenomenology. He currently teaches for the University of Patras, Greece and for the Hellenic Open University.