Since time immemorial, "dynamis" and "energeia" have formed what is probably the most dazzling pair of concepts in the history of philosophy: in their tense interplay, materialism and metaphysics, capability and realisation come together. But can they also be understood as historical-political categories? As such, it is precisely the turning points and differences in their conceptual history that reveal a change in historical thinking and new possibilities for political action. From Aristotle to Martin Heidegger to Jacques Derrida, Nassima Sahraoui shows in her penetrating reading that a new understanding of the ancient "dynamis" is more current and necessary than ever, because it holds a critical potential through which moments of freedom are made possible for us and our thinking, also and especially today.