Simone Weil

Name: Simone Weil
Rating: 4.25 (16 reviews)
ISBN: 9780268092917

By Simone Weil & Eric O. Springsted

Publisher Description

Although trained as a philosopher, Simone Weil (1909–43) contributed to a wide range of subjects, resulting in a rich field of interdisciplinary Weil studies. Yet those coming to her work from such disciplines as sociology, history, political science, religious studies, French studies, and women’s studies are often ignorant of or baffled by her philosophical investigations. In Simone Weil: Late Philosophical Writings, Eric O. Springsted presents a unique collection of Weil’s writings, one concentrating on her explicitly philosophical thinking.

The essays are drawn chiefly from the time Weil spent in Marseille in 1940-42, as well as one written from London; most have been out of print for some time; three appear for the first time; all are newly translated. Beyond making important texts available, this selection provides the context for understanding Weil's thought as a whole. This volume is important not only for those with a general interest in Weil; it also specifically presents Weil as a philosopher, chiefly one interested in questions of the nature of value, moral thought, and the relation of faith and reason. What also appears through this judicious selection is an important confirmation that on many issues respecting the nature of philosophy, Weil, Wittgenstein, and Kierkegaard shared a great deal.

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Simone Weil Reviews

4.0

Elsa

Created 5 months ago

“I really love simone weil”

Char

Created over 1 year ago

path

Created almost 2 years ago

“Even after reading and reviewing this collection of essays, it is difficult to reconcile the ideas of Weil the political theorist with Weil the christian mystic. And yet, I think there is a way to unite those concerns around the concern for the dignity of the individual. Man of the political essays in this collection propound ideas about organized society and how this might look, in which the value of collectives are recognized but carefully managed by valuing the individuals that make up those collectives. Part of this project is in shifting attention from the collective to the individual, noting that collectives have no obligations to individuals but individuals have obligations to collectives, which is an imbalance that can engender exploitation, especially when the needs of individuals are subsumed in an over-valuation of the collective. The trick is that the individuals by themselves are not enough to bring about positive change and dignity for all, the organizational force of the collective is needed. However, collectives need to be carefully designed to provide for the needs of individuals. Individuals may need equality and liberty and property but those needs must be harmonized with each other to produce order and social good through obedience and punishment (where needed). These seemingly contradictory "needs of the soul" can bring about the ideal good for all. It is a tantalizing but highly idealized view of politics and equally hard to envision how an idealized vision like this ever gets going. Although perhaps in post WWII Europe the civilized world seemed so pounded into dust that a new order could take shape. So how to reconcile this with the later work on detachment, beauty, poetry, and aesthetics in an individual connections to God through prayer? I'm honestly not entirely sure, but I think one way may be to recognize that idealized political constructivism does not happen in a vacuum. Our existing systems of civil and political and economic organization are exploitative in part because of our attachments to the world. We see the world and other people in it as means to ends but those ends are often just the effort to secure additional means (e.g., not acquiring money to purchase or do some good but to gain more money) and as long as we see the world through the lens of our attachments to it and through our motives then we never will pay enough attention to everyone else and their motives. Detachment, which we can achieve through education (it's only real purpose according to Weil) is a luxury, however, for those of us who do not work for subsistence, whose work does not allow them to get ahead but only to barely hang on to what they have. However, detachment and attention to the other is not outside of their reach either. It must be focused, though, through the recognition of what is, apart from our motives, and what is because other things are. And this access to the divine is an outlet to some kind of contemplative recognition of how one's work contributes to the world. It is a basic, undeniable dignity, equivalent (I think) to Descartes recognition that the "thinking I" is the foundation of the whole rationalist enterprise. Individual dignity recognized as "my" undeniable participation in the ideal is the moral foundation upon which to build civic order in a non-competitive and non-destructive way. At first, I was a little disappointed with this collection because it felt that I had just a teasing look at Weil's ideas about politics, God, attachments, and attention. There are so many tantalizing ideas in this selection of essays that you might feel, as I did, that there is not enough there to sustain enough understanding of any one of them. That's probably true, but this hodge-podge of essays is suggestive of a broader coherence worth pursuing with more reading.”

Aleyna

Created over 2 years ago

Viola Stuchlíková

Created over 2 years ago

About Simone Weil

Simone Adolphine Weil (1909-1943) was a French philosopher, mystic and political activist. After her graduation from formal education, Weil became a teacher and taught intermittently throughout the 1930s, taking several breaks because of poor health and in order to devote herself to political activism. Such work saw her assisting in the trade union movement, taking the side of the anarchists known as the Durruti Column in the Spanish Civil War, and spending more than a year working as a labourer, mostly in car factories, so that she could better understand the working class. Weil became increasingly religious and inclined towards mysticism as her life progressed. She wrote throughout her life, although most of her writings did not attract much attention until after her death. In the 1950s and 1960s, her work became famous in continental Europe and throughout the English-speaking world. Her thought has continued to be the subject of extensive scholarship across a wide range of fields.

Other books by Simone Weil

Love in the Void

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On the Abolition of All Political Parties

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Eric O. Springsted

Eric O. Springsted is the co-founder of the American Weil Society and served as its president for thirty-three years. After a career as a teacher, scholar, and pastor, he is retired and lives in Santa Fe, NM. He is the author and editor of a dozen previous books, including Simone Weil: Late Philosophical Writings (University of Notre Dame Press, 2015).