Between nature and mind: Simone Weil's intermediaries upon consideration of Charles Taylor's concept of ‘interspace’

Abstract Simone Weil's concept of the metaxu , taken from Plato's Philebus , is a well‐recognised and central feature of her thinking. However, it has not been sufficiently examined, especially as it is part of Weil's larger philosophical project. This essay seeks to provide new perspective on the concept by using Charles Taylor's concept of ‘interspace’ as a way of focussing it. Like Taylor, Weil wants to talk about an ‘interspace’ where concepts are part of ‘a third objectivity’, a logical space where mind and nature intersect. This space is the space of human meaning in our life world. The paper seeks to show this first by examining Weil's concepts of beauty and of science, and then to show that it was an epistemic concern of hers by carefully looking at her essay ‘Concept of Reading’. It concludes with five points on how Weil's concept of the intermediaries should be used in treating her thinking.