This same force ‘crushes just as ruthlessly’ those who fall under its yoke as it ‘ruthlessly intoxicates those who possess it or believe they possess it’. Simone Weil’s work explores the very close link between power and self-determination that defines the human condition

Before anyone can ‘explain’ to us what freedom is or teach us techniques for achieving it, we know full well when we feel free and when we do not. Experience does not lie. A summary of Costantino Esposito’s talk at the third edition of the Piccolo Festival of Philosophy