Critical theorist Ivan Illich was a big skeptic of modern-day institutions. For him, after a certain threshold, institutions no longer ensure human wellbeing but rather limit the capacity of humans to look for their own wellbeing. Take the example of scientific knowledge, one of the institutions he criticizes in the following terms: “Overconfidence in ‘better knowledge’ becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. People first cease to trust their own judgment and then want to be told the truth about what they know. Overconfidence in ‘better decision-making’ first hampers people’s ability to decide for themselves and then undermines their belief that they can decide.” 

This and other provocative statements in Chapter 4 (Recovery) of “Tools for Conviviality” were the core of the conversation that members of CONVIVIUM had in April 2025 in Paris. This reading session in a non-institutional and convivial setting that enabled “[t]he procedure by which personal [views] are honestly exchanged”.