Bernard Flynn, reader of Claude Lefort

Abstract

Claude Lefort is one of the most innovative political philosophers of our time. His work appears in great part, except for the book dedicated to Machiavelli, through the compilation of essays written in different periods and revolving around central problems, especially the characterization of democracy and totalitarianism. The task of producing a reading capable of giving meaning to this philosophical project, given its non-systematic character, is quite difficult. Thus, the work of Bernard Flynn is extremely fruitful for the interpretation of Lefort's thought. He argues that the combination of phenomenology, a philosophy that allows us to dissect our access to the real by interpreting the experience lived inside the democratic symbolic device, and the reading of the tradition of the political philosophy, capable of producing an interpretation of the events that mark modernity, allows Lefort to create a new understanding of the political. This paper intends to present the main aspects of this interpretation of the work of Lefort.