Educate freedom (Silvano Petrosino)

“Freedom is a gift, it is at the same time something already given, but also something that must always be regained: one is therefore free but at the same time one must also always become free”. This was the premise of the dialogue between the philosopher Silvano Petrosino - a philosopher internationally known for his studies on the thought of Lévinas and Derrida, professor at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan - with the young people and adults of the Arsenale della Pace of the Sermig of Turin on Saturday 15 February in the spaces of the Arsenale della Pace in Turin. A wide-ranging discussion on the theme “Educating freedom”: a wide-ranging reflection starting from the responsibility and rights/duties of individuals and then extending to society as a whole.

Here are some ideas from the evening. For a more detailed account, we refer to the March issue of the Sermig magazine NP Nuovo Progetto.

“When we talk about freedom we take it for granted that we want to be free. But history contradicts us because, if we look at the Exodus and the 40 years of life in the desert, we hear the Jews murmuring "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pot of flesh, eating bread to our fill"! Instead you have brought us out into this desert to starve all this multitude...". God hears their cry and sends quails and manna but for many it is not enough. We must be serious and sincere when we talk about freedom, sometimes men prefer security...".

"We all make mistakes, we struggle, but freedom is work. It is no coincidence that freedom is understood as liberation from evil, from sin. We like sin, we must admit it, we are "slaves of sin" because we do not always succeed or want to get out of it. If we do not walk towards humanity, if we do not change our view of ourselves and the world, we will discover ourselves old even as adolescents. In our life we ​​have important margins of action, it is up to us to act".

“What is the relationship between thought and freedom? The theme of reflection is great. It does not mean solving mathematical problems but bending over oneself, stopping, picking up again, reconsidering. Reflecting means not following spontaneity, following instinct, wanting everything right away: it means putting up a barrier in which I realize that not only I exist but also the other exists around me. Reflection helps me to raise and open my gaze through that moment of time. Today's society imposes everything on me, always, right away. Humanity is constituted exactly when it denies these three elements”.

“Our societies are marked by many forms of non-freedom. The list of non-freedoms is endless. We know of countries where there are dictatorships, in those situations it is evident. But we too are involved. Each of us is on a journey towards fulfillment, even if we do not always know its contours. This is why it is important to know many things. Our society betrays the idea of ​​fulfillment because it confuses it with the idea of ​​success...”.

By Unidialogo editorial team

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