Weil, Simone

From New World Encyclopedia
(import from wiki)
 
 
(23 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
−
{{Essay-entry}}
+
{{Approved}}{{Images OK}}{{Submitted}}{{Paid}}{{Copyedited}}
−
 
+
{{epname|Weil, Simone}}
−
[[Image:SimoneWeil.jpg|200px|thumb|right|''An Anthology'' by '''Simone Weil'''.]]
+
'''Simone Weil''' (February 3, 1909 – August 24, 1943) was a French [[philosopher]] and religious [[mysticism|mystic]]. Although Jewish by birth, she was initially an [[atheism|atheist]] and later her religious thinking was primarily inspired by [[Christianity]]. She never officially converted, however, as she was sympathetic with other religions including [[Hinduism]] and [[Buddhism]], which Christianity seemed to oppose. Her philosophical ideas were greatly influenced by Greek thought, particularly that of [[Plato]]. Throughout her life Weil was deeply concerned about the poor and suffering and much of her writings were devoted to social and political issues. She, herself, suffered from poor health, some of which was due to her rigorous [[asceticism]] and self-denial.
−
:''Simone Weil should not be confused with [[Simone Veil]], a French [[politician]].''
+
{{toc}}
−
 
 
−
'''Simone Weil''' ([[February 3]], [[1909]] – [[August 24]], [[1943]]) was a [[France|French]] [[philosopher]] and [[mysticism|mystic]].
 
−
 
 
 
==Life==
 
==Life==
−
The English language biography is Petrement (1976). Weil was born in [[Paris]] in 1909, in an agnostic household of [[Judaism|Jewish]] ancestry. She grew up in comfortable circumstances, as her father was a doctor. Her only sibling was the [[mathematician]] [[André Weil]] (1906-98). She suffered throughout her life from severe headaches, [[sinusitis]], and poor physical coordination. Her brilliance, ascetic lifestyle, introversion, and eccentricity limited her ability to mix with others.
+
===Childhood and school years===
 +
Simone Weil was born in Paris on February 3, 1909 to an agnostic family of Jewish origin. Her father was a distinguished doctor and she had one sibling, a brother who was three years her elder, and who was later to become the famous mathematician, [[André Weil]] (1906-1998). From a very early age Simone sympathized with the poor and oppressed. In fact, in 1915, when only six years old, she refused sugar in solidarity with the troops entrenched along the Western Front.  
  
−
===Intellectual life===
+
In her youth Weil was a brilliant and precocious student who became proficient in ancient Greek by the age of twelve. Also at the age of twelve she began to experience intense headaches, which she would suffer continuously throughout her life. In her late teens, she became involved in the worker's movement and wrote political tracts, marched in demonstrations, and advocated worker's rights. During this period, she considered herself a [[Marxist]], pacifist, and trade unionist. In 1928 Weil scored first in the entrance exam to the École Normale Supérieure. ([[Simone de Beauvoir]], another well-known philosopher, scored second.) After passing her agregation in 1931, Weil taught [[philosophy]] at a secondary school for girls in Le Puy. Teaching philosophy in high schools throughout Europe would remain her primary employment throughout her short life.
−
Weil was a brilliant and precocious student, and was proficient in [[ancient Greek]] by the age of 12. She later learned [[Sanskrit]] after discovering the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]''. She studied philosophy at the [[École Normale Supérieure]], finishing second in her class; [[Simone de Beauvoir]] was third. (The top student had an undistinguished career in the French public service.){{Fact|date=February 2007}} After receiving her teaching diploma in 1931, Weil taught philosophy at a secondary school for girls in [[Le Puy-en-Velay|Le Puy]]. Teaching philosophy in schools was her primary employment during her short life.
 
−
 
 
−
Most of the writing for which she is known was published [[posthumous]]ly.
 
  
 
===Political activism===
 
===Political activism===
−
In 1919, at 10 years of age, she declared herself a [[Bolshevism|Bolshevik]]. In her late teens, she became involved in the worker's movement. She wrote political tracts, marched in demonstrations, and advocated worker's rights. At this time, she was a [[Marxist]], [[pacifist]], and [[trade unionist]].
+
While teaching, Weil often took actions out of sympathy with the working class. When at Le Puy, she became involved in local political activity, supporting unemployed and striking workers despite criticism from the higher classes. She also wrote about social and economic issues, including ''Oppression and Liberty'' and numerous short articles for [[trade union]] journals. This work critiqued popular Marxist thought and offered an account of the limits of [[capitalism]] and [[socialism]].
  
−
Weil often took actions out of sympathy with the [[working class]]. In [[1915]], when she was only six years old, she refused sugar in solidarity with the troops entrenched along the [[Western Front]]. While teaching in Le Puy, she became involved in local political activity, supporting unemployed and striking workers despite criticism by some who were better off. She also wrote about social and economic issues, including ''Oppression and Liberty'' and numerous short articles for [[trade union]] journals. This work critiqued popular [[Marxist]] thought, and gave a pessimistic account of the limits of [[capitalism]] and [[socialism]].
+
She participated in the French general strike of 1933, called to protest unemployment and wage labor cuts. The following year she took a 12-month leave of absence from her teaching position to work incognito as a laborer in two factories, one owned by [[Renault]]. Weil hoped that this experience would allow her to connect with the working class so as to put her thought into action and so produce greater solidarity among the classes. Unfortunately, her poor health and inadequate physical strength forced her to quit after some months. In 1935 she resumed teaching, but donated most of her income to political causes and charitable endeavors.
  
−
She participated in the French [[general strike]] of 1933, called to protest unemployment and [[Wage labor|wage]] cuts. The following year she took a 12-month [[leave of absence]] from her teaching position to work incognito as a laborer in two factories, one owned by [[Renault]], believing that this experience would allow her to connect with the [[working class]]. Unfortunately, her poor health and inadequate physical strength forced her to quit after some months. In [[1935]] she resumed teaching, but donated most of her income to political causes and charitable endeavors.
+
In 1936, despite her pacifism, she fought in the [[Spanish Civil War]] on the Second Spanish Republic side. After spilling hot oil on herself over a cooking fire, however, she was forced to leave Spain. Throughout the remainder of her life, she continued to write essays on labor and management issues and the devastating effects of war.  
  
−
In 1936, despite her [[pacifism]], she fought in the [[Spanish Civil War]] on the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republicans]] side. However, her clumsiness repeatedly put her comrades at risk. After burning herself over a cooking fire, she left Spain to recuperate in [[Assisi]]. She continued to write essays on [[labor]] and [[management]] issues, as well as [[war]] and [[peace]].  
+
===Encounter with [[mysticism]]===
 +
While in Assisi in the spring of 1937, Weil visited the church in which [[Saint Francis of Assisi]] had often prayed. While in the church, she underwent a profound religious experience, which forced her to her knees and led her to pray for the first time in her life. She had another, more powerful revelation a year later, and after 1938 her writings became more mystical and spiritual, while at the same time retaining a focus on social and political issues. She was attracted to [[Roman Catholicism]], but declined to be baptized as an act of solidarity with those ‘outside’ the Church. (She explained this refusal in letters published in ''Waiting for God.'') During [[World War II]], she lived for a time in Marseille, receiving spiritual direction from a Dominican friar. Around this time she met the French Catholic author [[Gustave Thibon]], who later edited some of her work.
  
−
===Encounter with mysticism===
+
Weil did not limit her religious study to Christianity. She was keenly interested in other traditions, as well, such as Greek philosophy, [[Stoicism]], Hinduism (especially the [[Upanishads]] and the [[Bhagavad Gita]]), and [[Mahayana Buddhism]]. She believed that all these traditions were valid paths to God, and so much of her reluctance to join the Catholic Church can be attributed to the Church’s refusal to recognize non-Christian traditions. In this, she can be said to be a forerunner in the ecumenical movement, which is very much alive today. At the same time, however, she was opposed to religious [[syncretism]], claiming that it effaced the particularity of the individual traditions:
−
While in Assisi in the spring of 1937, she experienced a [[religious ecstasy]] in the same church in which [[Saint]] [[Francis of Assisi]] had prayed, which led her to pray for the first time in her life. She had another, more powerful [[revelation]] a year later, and from [[1938]] on, her writings became more [[mysticism|mystical]] and [[spiritual]], while retaining their focus on [[social relation|social]] and [[political]] issues. She was attracted to [[Roman Catholicism]], but declined to be [[baptism|baptized]]; she explained this refusal in letters published in ''[[Waiting for God (book)|Waiting for God]]''. During [[World War II]], she lived for a time in [[Marseille]], receiving spiritual direction from a [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] friar. Around this time she met the [[France|French]] [[Catholic]] author [[Gustave Thibon]], who later edited some of her work.
 
  
−
Weil did not limit her curiosity to Christianity. She was keenly interested in other traditions—especially the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] and [[Egyptian mythology|Egyptian]] [[Mystery religion|mysteries]], [[Hinduism]] (especially the [[Upanishads]] and the [[Bhagavad Gita]]), and [[Mahayana Buddhism]]. She believed that all these and others were valid paths to [[God]], and much of her reluctance to join the [[Roman Catholic Church]] can be ascribed to that body's reluctance to recognize non-Christian traditions.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} However, she was nevertheless opposed to religious [[syncretism]], claiming that it effaced the particularity of the individual traditions:
+
<blockquote>Each religion is alone true, that is to say, that at the moment we are thinking of it we must bring as much attention to bear on it as if there were nothing else…. A "synthesis" of religion implies a lower quality of attention.</blockquote>
−
 
 
−
<blockquote>
 
−
Each religion is alone true, that is to say, that at the moment we are thinking of it we must bring as much attention to bear on it as if there were nothing else...A "synthesis" of religion implies a lower quality of attention.
 
−
</blockquote>
 
  
 
===Last years===
 
===Last years===
−
In [[1942]], she travelled first to the [[United States|USA]], then to [[London]], where she joined the [[French Resistance]]. The punishing work regime she assumed soon took a heavy toll; in [[1943]] she was diagnosed with [[tuberculosis]] and instructed to rest and eat well. However, she refused special treatment because of her long-standing political [[idealism]] and activism, and her detachment from material things. Instead, she limited her food intake to what she believed residents of the parts of France [[Vichy France|occupied by the Germans]] ate. She most likely ate even less, as she refused food on most occasions.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Her condition quickly deteriorated, and she was moved to a [[sanatorium]] in [[Ashford, Kent]], [[England]].  
+
In 1942, Weil traveled first to the United States and then to [[London]], where she joined the [[French Resistance]]. Her punishing work regime, however, soon took a heavy toll. In 1943 she was diagnosed with [[tuberculosis]] and instructed to rest and eat well. She refused special treatment, though, because of her long-standing commitment to solidarity with those who are suffering. Instead, she limited her food intake to what she believed were the rations of the residents of occupied France, who were dying of hunger. She was soon moved to a sanatorium in Ashford, Kent, where she continued to refuse food. After a lifetime of battling illness and frailty, Weil died on August 24, 1943 from starvation and pulmonary tuberculosis. She is buried in Ashford, New Cemetery. The majority of her writings were published after her death.
  
−
After a lifetime of battling illness and frailty, Weil died in [[August]] of [[1943]] from [[cardiac failure]] at the age of 34. The coroner's report said that "the deceased did kill and slay herself by refusing to eat whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed."{{citequote}}
+
==Main Philosophical Ideas==
 +
===Christian Hellenist===
 +
Although Simone Weil’s thought is unorthodox and so defies facile classification, her philosophical ideas align mostly with the tradition known as “Christian Hellenism,” which fuses [[Greek philosophy|Greek metaphysics]] with Christian [[theology]]. For while she held firmly to many of the basic tenets of classical Greek philosophy, she thought this “love of wisdom” finds its ultimate fulfillment in the [[soul]]’s ascent to God. For Weil the ancient thinkers, particularly [[Plato]], were the precursors to Christian thought. In fact, she considered Plato to be the “father of mysticism.” According to Weil, the wisdom of Plato is ultimately attained, not through human reason alone, but by the soul’s ascent to God made possible only by the mystical experience of [[transcendence]].  
  
−
In 1943 the term [[Anorexia Nervosa]] was not well known and the condition not always recognised, it would appear that it was a factor in the death of Simon Weil.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
+
Given Weil’s interpretation of Plato and her defense of the world’s great religions, she is quite critical of the claims of positive science, which believes truths are attained solely through its own empirical methods and procedures. For Weil such a materialistic view of reality leads to the technical manipulation of power and the loss of spiritual values. Not that she was opposed to the scientific enterprise and the advances that are made through it. Rather she warns of the dangers of the contemporary attitudes toward science, which views the possible successes of science to be unlimited. It is imperative, Weil insists, that the limits of science be recognized in order to establish its proper task as well as to surpass it in the attainment of a more certain truth, namely the certainty of the eternal or infinite.
  
−
==Philosophy==
+
Moreover, her critique of science was also directed at the abstraction of science (and even certain forms of traditional metaphysics) insofar as scientists (and philosophers) failed to put their theoretical knowledge into practice. In this sense, Weil was a highly ethical and religious writer who thought the proper fulfillment of philosophy was in action. This is why even after her shift from atheism to faith she continued to write on and be actively engaged in social and political issues. Method, for her, could not be a purely abstract and disengaged one but must instead be applied to the actions of one’s life.
−
{{SectOR}}
 
  
−
Weil's [[philosophy]] can be ''roughly'' divided between her [[secular]] thinking and her [[spiritual]] thinking. This is a rough division, however, because her thinking often moved back and forth between these areas, and sometimes exhibited a [[holistic]] approach that scoffed at such boundaries. Weil wrote as if the world was the stage for both spirituality and [[politics]]; she at once enjoyed an intensely personal spiritual drive, while her social philosophy emphasizes the relationships between individuals and groups.  This intersection of thought developed in her an interest in healing social rifts of the [[masses]] and providing for the physical and psychological needs of [[humanity]].
+
<blockquote>What marks off the "self" is method; it has no other source than ourselves: it is when we really employ method that we really begin to exist. As long as one employs method only on symbols one remains within the limits of a sort of game. In action that has method about it, we ourselves act, since it is we ourselves who found the method; we ''really'' act because what is unforeseen presents itself to us.</blockquote>
  
−
===Critique of secular metaphysics in ''Lectures on Philosophy''===
+
===[[Philosophy of religion|Religious Philosophy]]===
 +
==== Overview ====
 +
It is difficult to speak conclusively of Weil's religious thought since it exists only in the form of scattered aphorisms in her notebooks and in a handful of letters. But although these texts do not offer a very direct path to an understanding and evaluation of her religious ideas, certain generalizations can be made. First, Weil's religious thinking is better thought of as a ‘religious philosophy’ rather than a ‘theology’ because her thought is quite unorthodox in that she rarely considered (or at times opposed) the traditional teachings or dogma of organized religion(s). Despite (and perhaps because of) this fact, her thought and writings are deeply personal and religious. Some commentators, in fact, have called her a “secular saint” or “mystic.”
  
−
In ''Lectures on Philosophy'' (hereafter LP), Weil attempts, among other things, to set forth for her [[lycée]] students a coherent version of the [[materialism|materialist]] philosophical project. It is sometimes difficult to discern her methods, particularly what her conception of truth – or criteria for [[validity]] – is, and [http://en.wiktionary.org/whence whence] she derived [[authority]] for her claims. This is, in fact, a concern for her entire body of work.
+
Her religious philosophy is both profound and complex as it draws from various religious sources. Although primarily Christian, she also draws deeply from [[Judaism]], [[Stoicism]], [[Hinduism]], and [[Buddhism]]. Her unorthodoxy can be seen, however, in her rejection of certain books of the [[Old Testament]], which she viewed to be too violent and so unworthy of the nature of God (such as the book of [[Joshua]]). Moreover, she rejected the historical nature of the Jews as the “chosen people,” which of course was hers by birth as well. (Her often scathing attacks on Judaism as an organized and historical religion have led some critics to view her thought as a kind of masochism. Her view is particularly problematic in that she was writing just prior to and during the [[Holocaust]].)
−
 
 
−
Implicitly, her method seems to be something like that of [[William James]], in that she deals with truth not so much [[logic|logically]] or [[science|scientifically]] but [[psychology|psychologically]] or [[phenomenology|phenomenologically]]—she is concerned in LP with disclosing what she believes to be the conditions necessary for an ''experience'' of truth or reality to emerge for the human subject or, for an object, or concept etc., to emerge as ''real'' within human experience.
 
−
 
 
−
However, she does not advocate for a general theory of human truth-production, as James does, justified by [[empirical observation]].  For her, the problem of [[truth]] is always a deeply personal one, to be approached through introspection. She is caught between her own yearning for traditional, [[idealist philosophy]] and her own appreciation of the limits of [[foundationalism]].  Thus she produces writings such as the following:
 
−
 
 
−
{{Bquote
 
−
| Any proof of the [[syllogism]] would be absurd. The syllogism is, to put it briefly, nothing but a rule of language to avoid contradiction: at bottom the principle of non-contradiction is a principle of grammar.
 
−
| x
 
−
| x
 
−
| Simone Weil
 
−
| ''LP'', p. 78}}
 
−
 
 
−
and
 
−
 
 
−
{{Bquote
 
−
| We are forced to accept the [[postulate]]s and [[axiom]]s precisely because we are unable to give an account of them. What one can do is try to explain why they seem obvious to us.
 
−
| x
 
−
| x
 
−
| Simone Weil
 
−
| {{check}}
 
−
}}
 
−
 
 
−
alongside the most strident and unforgiving proclamations of this or that specific truth. When pressed, her final appeals take a form similar to, "It's based on what is [[beautiful|beauty]], and if it's beautiful, it must be true." This is not quite a child's [[naïve]] clinging to fancy or an absurd extension of the [[Keats]]ian [[Ode on a Grecian Urn|axiom]]; it is expression of how personally Weil took truth: she counted as true not that which she could prove but that upon which she depended, that which she could not do without. In LP she tells us:
 
−
 
 
−
{{Bquote
 
−
| One can never really give a proof of the reality of anything; reality is not something open to proof, it is something established. It is established just because proof is not enough. It is this characteristic of language, at once indispensable and inadequate, which shows the reality of the external world.
 
−
 
 
−
Most people hardly ever realize this, because it is rare that the very same man thinks and puts his thought into action...
 
−
| x
 
−
| x
 
−
| Simone Weil
 
−
| ''LP'', p. 72-3}}
 
−
 
 
−
Weil is pointing here to the [[disjunction]] between planning and execution, which is brought about by the [[division of labor]] between [[designer]] (e.g.[[architect]]) and [[worker]] (e.g. [[bricklayer]]) – a division which holds the place almost of [[original sin]] for both Weil and for [[John Dewey]], and which also reflects Weil's encounters with the [[philosophy]] of [[Karl Marx|Marx]].{{Or}}
 
−
 
 
−
That connection becomes even stronger when we read,
 
−
 
 
−
{{Bquote
 
−
| What marks off the "self" is method; it has no other source than ourselves: it is when we really employ method that we really begin to exist. As long as one employs method only on symbols one remains within the limits of a sort of game. In action that has method about it, we ourselves act, since it is we ourselves who found the method; we ''really'' act because what is unforeseen presents itself to us.
 
−
| x
 
−
| x
 
−
|Simone Weil
 
−
| ''ibid.''}}
 
 
   
 
   
−
In other words, for Weil, both [[self (philosophy)|self]] and [[world]] are constituted only through informed action upon the world. This resembles [[pragmatic]] arguments forwarded by Dewey and James about the key role of [[observation]] and above all ''experimentation'' in creating human [[knowledge]].
+
Moreover, some scholars have labeled her religious thought as  [[gnosticism|gnostic]] or [[Manicheanism|Manichean]] because of her seemingly other worldliness in distinguishing between the pure goodness of God and spiritual nature and the evils of the body or material nature. And indeed, such criticism finds legitimacy not only in her support of the mathematical [[mysticism]] of the [[Pythagoreans]] and [[Platonism|Platonists]], but also in the often disparaging rhetoric she employs in speaking of the temporal world. Defenders of Weil, however, are quick to point out that this critique does not hold up in regard to her understanding of creation. For Weil does not regard the world as a debased creation of a [[demiurge]] but is rather an indirect expression of God's love. Although she recognizes this world as a place of evil, affliction, and the brutal mixture of chance and necessity, she nonetheless acknowledges the wealth of beauty and goodness, which this world reflects. In the end, like all great mystics, her disparagement of this world is perhaps best seen as a rejection of the transience and illusoriness of the earthly world in favor of a transcendent, mystic vision of an eternal and immutable reality.
−
 
 
−
===Mystical theology in ''Gravity and Grace''===
 
−
 
 
−
Weil's [[theology]] is interesting and complex both in itself and in the factors which encouraged its [[genesis]] in her [[psyche]]. Some have suggested that she should be regarded as a modern-day [[Marcion|Marcionite]], due to her virtually wholesale rejection of the [[Old Testament]] and her overall distaste for the [[Judaism]] which was technically hers by birth; others have identified her as a [[gnostic]] for similar reasons, as well as  for her mystical theologization of geometry and [[Platonism|Platonist]] philosophy. However, it has been pointed out{{who}} that this analysis falls apart when it comes to the [[creation (theology)|creation]] of the world, for Weil does not regard the world as a debased creation of a [[demiurge]], but as a direct expression of God's love—despite the fact that she ''also'' recognizes it as a place of evil, affliction, and the brutal mixture of chance and necessity. This juxtaposition leads her to produce an unusual form of Christian [[theodicy]].
 
−
 
 
−
It is difficult to speak conclusively of Weil's theology, since it exists only in the form of scattered aphorisms in her notebooks, and in a handful of letters. Neither of these formats provides a very direct path to understanding or evaluating her beliefs, nevertheless, it ''is'' possible to make certain generalizations.{{Or}}
 
  
 
====Absence====
 
====Absence====
 +
One of Weil’s central ideas is her notion of absence. She believed that God created by an act of self-delimitation. In other words, because God is conceived as a kind of ultimate fullness, a perfect being, no creature could exist except where God was not. Withdrawal or absence, in other words, is a necessary condition for the possibility of our existence. There is, then, an original [[kenosis]] or self-emptying of God in his creating space for all those beings who are not God to exist. This initial kenosis of creation precedes the corrective kenosis of Christ's incarnation. For this reason, we are born into a kind of “fallen state” not only because of [[original sin]], but because to be created at all we had to be precisely what God is not, i.e., we had to be the opposite of what is holy. Our very limitation as finite and temporal beings separates us from God by an infinite abyss.
  
−
Absence is the key image for her [[metaphysics]], [[cosmology]], [[cosmogeny]], and [[theodicy]]. She believed that God created by an act of self-delimitation—in other words, because God is conceived as a kind of utter fullness, a perfect being, no creature could exist except where God was not. Thus creation occurred only when God withdrew in part.
+
This more [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonic]] notion of creation responds to the [[problem of evil]] by explaining evil in terms of the absence, limit, or negation of what is good. Only God or the One is purely good and without evil, since He is without limitation (infinite). There is, then, a kind of necessity to evil in the created world due to our limitations and the absence of God. And yet, we are powerless in ourselves to fulfill that absence. Nonetheless, Weil believed that evil, and its consequence, affliction, served the role of driving us out of ourselves and towards God. "The extreme affliction which overtakes human beings does not create human misery, it merely reveals it."
−
 
 
−
This is, for Weil, an original [[kenosis]] ''preceding'' the corrective kenosis of Christ's incarnation (cf. [[Athanasius]]). We are thus born in a sort of damned position not owing to [[original sin]] as such, but because to be created at all we had to be precisely what God is not, i.e., we had to be the opposite of what is [[holy]].  
 
−
{{See|Apophatic theology}}
 
−
 
 
−
This notion of creation is a cornerstone of her theodicy, for if creation is conceived this way (as necessarily containing evil within itself), then there is no [[problem of evil|problem]] of the entrance of evil into a perfect world. Nor does this constitute a delimitation of God's [[omnipotence]], if it is not that God could not create a perfect world, but that the act which we refer towards by saying "create" in its very [[essence]] implies the impossibility of perfection.
 
−
 
 
−
However, this notion of the necessity of evil does not mean that we are simply, originally, and continually doomed; on the contrary, Weil tells us that "Evil is the form which God's [[mercy]] takes in this world."{{citequote}} Weil believed that evil, and its consequence, [[affliction]], served the role of driving us out of ourselves and towards God—"The extreme affliction which overtakes human beings does not create human misery, it merely reveals it."{{citequote}}
 
−
 
 
−
More specifically, affliction drives us to what Weil referred to as "decreation"—which is not death, but rather closer to "[[extinction]]" ([[nirvana]]) in the [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] tradition—the willed dissolution of the subjective ego in attaining realization of the true nature of the universe.{{check}}
 
−
 
 
−
(Of course, Weil's concept of that true nature was a [[Platonist]]ic or [[Vedanta|Vedantic]] one of metaphysical fullness, while the Buddhist concept is one of metaphysical emptiness, but the [[soteriological]] strategies and metaphors suffer considerable overlap.){{Or}}
 
  
 
====Affliction====
 
====Affliction====
 +
Weil's concept of affliction ''(malheur)'' goes beyond simple suffering, though it certainly includes it. Affliction is a physical and mental anguish that cuts so deep it scourges the very soul. For Weil only some souls are capable of truly experiencing this intense affliction; these are precisely those souls which are least deserving of it. For they are the ones who are most prone or open to spiritual realization.
  
−
Weil's concept of affliction ("malheur") goes beyond simple suffering, though it certainly includes it. Only some souls are capable of truly experiencing affliction; these are precisely those souls which are least deserving of it—that are most prone or open to spiritual realization. Affliction was a sort of suffering plus, which inclusively transcended both the body and mind; they were physical and mental anguish that went beyond to scourge the very soul.
+
War and oppression are often the most intense cases of affliction. Affliction is associated both with necessity and with chance. It is fraught with necessity because it is hardwired into existence by the very nature of the absence of God. Affliction is an existential condition, then, in that it imposes itself upon the sufferer with the full force of the inescapable. It is also subject to chance, however, inasmuch as chance, too, is an inescapable part of the nature of existence. The element of chance is essential to the unjust character of affliction. In other words, affliction does not necessarily (or even usually) follow from sin. Rather, like the randomness of nature it simply strikes whomever it will. Like gravity it weighs the soul down such that only grace can uplift it.
−
 
 
−
War and oppression were the most intense cases of affliction; to experience it she turned to the life of a [[factory]] worker, while to understand it she turned to [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]''. Affliction was associated both with [[necessity]] and with [[chance]]—it was fraught with necessity because it was hardwired into existence itself, and thus imposed itself upon the sufferer with the full force of the inescapable, but it was also subject to chance inasmuch as chance, too, is an inescapable part of the nature of existence. The element of chance was essential to the unjust character of affliction; in other words, my affliction should not usually—let alone always—follow from my sin, as per traditional Christian theodicy, but should be visited upon me for no special reason.  
 
−
 
 
−
{{Bquote
 
−
| The man who has known pure joy, if only for a moment...is the only man for whom affliction is something devastating. At the same time he is the only man who has not deserved the punishment. But, after all, for him it is no punishment; it is God holding his hand and pressing rather hard. For, if he remains constant, what he will discover buried deep under the sound of his own lamentations is the pearl of the silence of God.
 
−
| x
 
−
| x
 
−
| Simone Weil
 
−
|''[[Gravity and Grace]]''
 
−
}}
 
−
 
 
−
====Metaxu: "Every separation is a link."====
 
−
 
 
−
The concept of metaxu, which Weil borrowed from Plato, is that which both separates and connects. (e.g., as a wall separates two prisoners but can be used to tap messages) This idea of connecting distance was of the first importance for Weil's understanding of the created realm. The [[world]] as a whole, along with any of its components, including our physical [[body|bodies]], are to be regarded as serving the same function for us in relation to God that a blind man's stick serves for him in relation to the world about him. They do not afford direct insight, but can be used experimentally to bring the mind into practical contact with reality. This metaphor allows any absence to be interpreted as a presence, and is a further component in Weil's theodicy.
 
−
 
 
−
====Beauty====
 
−
 
 
−
For Weil, "The beautiful is the experimental proof that the incarnation is possible." For Weil, the beauty which is inherent in the form of the world (this inherency is proven, for her, in [[geometry]], and expressed in all good [[art]]) is the proof that the world points to something beyond itself; it establishes the essentially [[telic]] character of all that exists.
 
−
 
 
−
[[Beauty]] also served a [[soteriology|soteriological]] function for Weil: "Beauty captivates the flesh in order to obtain permission to pass right to the soul." It constitutes, then, another way in which the [[divine]] reality behind the world invades our lives. Where affliction conquers us with brute [[force]], beauty sneaks in and topples the [[empire]] of the self from within.
 
−
 
 
−
===Work in ''The Need for Roots''===
 
−
 
 
−
Written during WWII, Simone Weil’s book ''The Need for Roots'' was written right before her death. She was in London working for the [[French Resistance]] and trying to convince [[Charles de Gaulle|De Gaulle]] to form a contingent of nurses to serve at the front lines.
 
−
 
 
−
''The Need for Roots'' has an ambitious plan. It sets out to address the past and to set out a road map for the future of France after WWII. She painstakingly analyzes the spiritual and ethical [[milieu]] that led up to France’s defeat by the German army, and then addresses these issues with the prospect of eventual French victory.
 
−
 
 
−
What marks her work is the concreteness of her plans and analysis. This means that she does not clothe her plan in theoretical language, but puts it a concrete form—for Weil, the concreteness of the plan would assure its implementation.
 
−
 
 
−
====Obligations versus rights====
 
−
There are several key themes in the work. The first is the precedence that [[obligation]] has over [[rights]]. For Weil, unless a person understands that they have certain obligations in life, towards themselves, towards others, and towards society, the notion of right will have no [[power]] or [[Value theory|value]].
 
−
 
 
−
At the same time, obligations have a transcendental origin. They come from a realm that imposes an imperative—this must is a light from the other world which shines on this world and provides it with direction and order. For Weil, this is a [[spiritual]] concept — this means that it transcends the world of competing interests and power games. It opens up a world where [[justice]] is possibility and a promise and provides the foundation upon which any purely selfish and relative means find their true perspective.
 
−
 
 
−
Obligation has its analogy to the “Thou Shalt not…” of the [[Ten Commandments]]. It is the feeling of sacredness with regard to the holy. It is that which stops us from transgressing certain boundaries of [[ethical]] or spiritual behavior. It is that which, if profaned, inspires in us feelings and torments of guilt, and has its home in the [[conscience]].
 
−
 
 
−
For Weil, there is one obligation that supersedes all others. This is the obligation to respect and love the [[Other]]. It is recognizable in the feelings and emotions associated with harming something so essential to being human that if we violate it, we violate a holy [[shrine]]. This something in a human being is what makes them who they are and what they are.
 
−
 
 
−
For Weil, without this [[supernatural]] world, we are left to a human world where power and force hold sway. The struggle for power is the motor of human history, she believes. It is the [[human condition]]. It is the source of human suffering and [[injustice]]. In her analysis, there is no human answer to this struggle for power, nor is it possible to stop the struggle with any form of [[ideology]], such as [[Marxism]] or [[capitalism]] or any other form of human-made [[political system]].
 
−
 
 
−
The world of spirit, for Weil, confronts this struggle for power. Spirituality is not a way out, an unearthly and [[utopia]]n dream—instead, she believes that there are [techniques that enable humans to become [[spiritual]]. These techniques are the ones that the great [[mystic]]s of every religious tradition has recognized and practiced. For her, the mystical practices of [[Saint Francis of Assisi]] or [[Saint John of the Cross]] are especially telling. For Weil, they are manuals of dealing with the pain and suffering of concrete life while maintaining a link to the transcendent world of God.
 
−
 
 
−
Obligations, therefore, provide a link to the spiritual realities that give life meaning and sustain the oppressed and sufferer with its healing power. But obligation is also that power that calls to each of us from the face of another. For Weil, this aspect of the other is that which is [[inviolable]] in each and every human being. As she states in one of her essays, it is that part of each of us that expects the good to be done to us. It is that which cries out for [[justice]] when it is violated.
 
−
 
 
−
Rights, on the other hand, are those relative ends which we strive for. They are not eternal in the way that obligations are, and instead rely on obligations to have legitimacy. That is, unless we have an obligation to [[respect]] the human in people, rights will not be given any legitimacy.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Why is spirituality necessary for politics?=====
 
−
 
 
−
Another aspect of this question is the awareness that Weil brings to social and political problems of why spirituality is necessary. It might be a truism that true change in a society cannot occur unless there is a subjective change as well. There is an example of this in alcohol or drug treatment programs. Unless the person wants to change, all the counseling and the support groups will not make a person change.
 
−
 
 
−
For Weil, on the social level, this is true of societies as well. In her analysis of history and revolutions, she showed that every revolution ultimately replaced one form of oppression with another. For her, this showed that the reality of history is struggle for power. This is why she believed that for true change, a spiritual awakening must occur in individual conscience.
 
−
 
 
−
Take an example: why, with all the money thrown at poverty in the US, is there still poverty? For Weil, the answer to this question is that the programs and money were directed at the wrong problems. Because they were programs by those who had for those who did not have, the misrelation in power continued—in many ways, the rich instituted programs that would continue to benefit them and maintain their hold on power.
 
−
 
 
−
Perhaps this in and of itself justifies the notion that living with the poor and oppressed changes one’s consciousness. Of course, a simple or superficial identification with the poor will not be an authentic experience. But a continued and extended opening up of oneself to the pain and suffering of the poor and oppressed—putting oneself into their condition and seeking that condition would seem to work a change in the spirit.
 
−
 
 
−
Perhaps this is why Weil commends the mystical practices of the saints—this rigorous and methodical emptying of oneself does not come easily—it is too easy to believe that one is there while still holding on to the escape route in the back of one’s mind. It demands something like a spiritual practice to seek out all those ways we have of deluding ourselves and lying to ourselves. Weil never says that it is simply a matter of living with the poor—there is a constant reminder in her writings that this experience must permeate one’s entire spirit and being. In her words, one must become a slave to understand what a slave endures.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Can we guarantee obligations?=====
 
−
 
 
−
How does a social organization guarantee that the obligations that individual members owe to each other are carried out? How does a social organization nurture and help bring to birth this awareness of one’s obligations to others?
 
−
 
 
−
These are some of the problems that Weil realizes she must answer if she is to provide a realistic and workable solution to the problem of injustice in the world. As mentioned earlier, change must come from inside for people to really change. But how do you make someone change? The answer is that you do not, instead you must provide a social structure that meets certain needs and anchors them in a fertile and nurturing soil. Thus the metaphor of rootedness in her work.
 
−
 
 
−
Based on her analysis of obligation, Weil therefore posits that there are certain spiritual needs of the human soul. Without these, a human society will die and its dying will crush and destroy human souls. For her, every socio-cultural entity deserves respect. It is the sum of all human aspirations and wisdom. The flowering of human souls—past, present, and future—depends in many ways on a socio-cultural entity to thrive and grow.
 
−
 
 
−
She uses the analogy of a garden. This is not hyperbole—in a very real way, Weil believes, the human soul is like a plant that thrives or dies, depending on the type of environment in which it grows. Like a plant that responds to good soil, sunshine and nutrients, the human soul responds to a nurturing social structure, the light of the spirit, and the elements of the state. For Weil, the nutrients of the soul, what she calls its food, when present in a society reflect overall health for both the individual soul and the society.
 
−
 
 
−
It is important to note Weil’s emphasis at the start on the individual. All elements of a socio-cultural entity begin and end with the individual. Now, the individual has both material and spiritual aspects. Weil does not buy into the notion that man is only a soul or only a body. Both aspects of a human have needs and these needs must be met or the individual is in jeopardy of dying.
 
−
 
 
−
Even though Weil talks about societies and nations, she is emphatic in her denunciation of the notion that society or the nation is the most important entity in the spiritual life of an individual. She does not believe that collectivities have rights which somehow outweigh those of the individual, nor does she believe that these can solve problems in and of themselves related to injustice. They are merely the means to attaining justice, not the ends.
 
−
 
 
−
====The spiritual needs of the soul====
 
−
The soul needs food just as the body needs food, according to Weil. This food comes in the form of meeting the obligations that encourage the soul to grow and mature. These needs include the following.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Order=====
 
−
 
 
−
The need for order reflects Weil’s overall belief that the universe follows a rigid course of cause and effect.  This order, however, relates to the ability of all members of a society to keep the obligations that they must observe for a free and just society to exist. This order is a balancing of obligations and needs. Without this balance, the society becomes sick and ultimately may die.
 
−
 
 
−
Unlike things in the natural world, however, where there are opposites and extremes one must maintain a mean, the true nature of order allows all spiritual needs to be met and satisfied. With natural needs and desires, there are polar opposites, but with spiritual needs, they all need to be present for true freedom and justice to exist.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Liberty=====
 
−
 
 
−
Liberty relates to the ability and freedom to make choices. The need for individual choice is weighed against the rules of society, thereby limiting our choices. Liberty and choice relate to maturity—mature individuals grow up understanding their own liberty depends on the liberty of others and the ability of society to control the negative actions of others. The rules that are imposed should accord with conscience. And though the realm of action may be restricted, for people of goodwill and conscience, they are second nature and accord well with the liberty of all members of a society.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Obedience=====
 
−
 
 
−
Obedience comes about through the free consent of all members of the society that are affected. There is obedience to rules and to those who enforce the rules and exercise authority over others. When these are obeyed through a free and open consent, there is not servility but obedience. Consent is the heart of obedience—since obedience out of fear of punishment or hope of reward breeds servility. She notes that in her own time, men are starved for obedience—yet there are those [read Hitler] who have exploited that fact and enslaved men instead.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Responsibility=====
 
−
 
 
−
For Weil, responsibility is what each person needs to feel useful and indispensable in their social life. Many people want to know the worth of their work, therefore they want to know what the big picture is relating to the work that they do. People also want to know what the interconnections are between his own actions, those of his or her fellow citizens, and those of the society as a whole. In other words, people need to know the part that they play in every great or small undertaking.
 
−
Closely related to responsibility is the need for initiative—that is the possibility to show one’s leadership.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Equality=====
 
−
 
 
−
This notion relates to the respect that each individual deserves simply as a human being. There are no reasons why someone should not deserve this respect.  Society where opportunities depend on natural talents and expertise will produce some inequalities. Society must ensure that these inequalities do not impinge on this need for equality. One way to obviate this is to provide stiffer penalties for those in positions of authority and power than for those without this status.
 
−
 
 
−
Note also her emphasis on how many can affect equality. It should not be made the measure of all things, as she puts it.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Hierarchism=====
 
−
 
 
−
Veneration of superiors as symbols, of what? “that realm situated above all men and whose expression in this world is made up of the obligations owed by each man to his fellowmen.” The superiors should acknowledge this as the source of their authority, not their personal powers. “The effect of true hierarchism is to bring each one to fit himself morally into he place he occupies.”
 
−
 
 
−
=====Honour=====
 
−
 
 
−
This has to do with the respect due to each human being as part of his social environment. It is recognition of his role in and activities as part of a greater social purpose—this links individuals to a past and to the actions of those who went before him or her.
 
−
 
 
−
Oppression rubs out true honor and the traditions and past accomplishments of men and women are extinguished. They lose their “social prestige.” Conquering rubs out these traditions and this memory, thereby desecrating the memory of those who have gone before and denying members of the conquered society and relationship to the heroism and traditions of their past. Instead, they are made to honor and venerate the heroes and heroines of the conquering nation.
 
−
 
 
−
Modern societies have a warped sense of honor—while they honor certain types of heroes such as aviators, millionaires, and others like them. But the heroism of miners and others are left unacknowledged.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Punishment=====
 
−
 
 
−
There are two types of punishment: disciplinary and penal. Disciplinary punishment puts people back on track after making a mistake, much as we do for children. Failings against which it would be too exhausting to fight if there were no social support.
 
−
 
 
−
Penal punishment welds a man back into society again after he or she makes commits a crime of their own accord. This is best done with consent on his part—“the only way of showing respect for somebody who has placed himself outside the law is to reinstate him inside the law by subjecting him to the punishment ordained by the law.”
 
  
−
But punishment as fear is wrong. Punishment must be an honor. “It must not only wipe out the stigma of the crime, but must be regarded as a supplementary form of education, compelling a higher devotion to the public good. The severity of the punishment must be in keeping with the kind of obligation which has been violated, and not with the interests of public security.”
+
<blockquote> The man who has known pure joy, if only for a moment… is the only man for whom affliction is something devastating. At the same time he is the only man who has not deserved the punishment. But, after all, for him it is no punishment; it is God holding his hand and pressing rather hard. For, if he remains constant, what he will discover buried deep under the sound of his own lamentations is the pearl of the silence of God.</blockquote>
  
−
This last comment shows Weil’s concern that crimes committed by those with more public authority and power should be punished more severely in many cases than those committing “lesser” crimes.
+
====Decreation, Waiting, and Metaxu ====
 +
Since beneath the sea of affliction one finds the “pearl of the silence of God,” Weil emphasizes the need for “decreation.” Just as creation is what provides the space for our own existence, and so separation from God, decreation is necessary for our unity or contact with God. For Weil the sole power that we possess in ourselves is the ability to say ‘I’. We must sacrifice this power for the sake of God. We must give back what he gave to us. In this way, we destroy, destruct or uproot ourselves. One sees in this notion of decreation the influence on Weil of eastern thought. For the ego must be splintered or dissolved in order for one to experience a higher reality.  
  
−
=====Freedom of opinion=====
+
But although decreation is a necessary condition for our contact with God it is not a sufficient one. That is, it is not something we are ourselves can bring about. It requires God’s movement toward us or, in other words, grace. For Weil this meant that waiting was an essential element in the ascent of the soul toward God. She held that God is already waiting for us, such that we merely need to “turn around” and face him. At the same time, our inability to do this on our own means we too have to wait. That is, wait for God to traverse the infinite distance which separate us from Himself. It is this element of waiting which gives Weil’s thought an [[eschatology|eschatological]] character to it.
  
−
The big thing to note here is her emphasis on the individual. Only individuals have opinions. This is important, because she opposes this idea to the idea that associations or corporations have opinions as well. This is seen in some countries, particularly the United States of America, where companies and political parties are said to have the right of freedom of speech.
+
Despite this need for waiting our very affliction can be the means with which to make contact with God. Weil uses the concept of metaxu, which she borrowed from Plato, in claiming that that which separates also connects (just as a wall, which separates two prisoners, can be used to tap messages). This idea of connecting distance was significant for Weil's understanding of the created realm. The material world and all its physical aspects can be regarded as serving the same function for us in relation to God that a blind man's stick serves for him in relation to the world about him. They do not afford direct insight, but can be used indirectly to bring the mind into contact with reality. In this way, absence can be transformed into a kind of presence.
  
−
Weil also asserts that individuals should be responsible for their words. They should not be simply allowed to express any shocking opinion, unless they are willing either to admit that they don’t stand behind their words or that they do; in the most egregious situations, individuals could be penalized for making outrageous statements that spurred others to perform immoral acts.
+
====Obligations====
 +
For Weil [[obligation]] has priority over [[rights]]. For unless a person understands that they have certain obligations in life, towards themselves, towards others, and towards society, the notion of right will have no power or value. At the same time, obligations have a transcendental origin. They come from a realm that imposes an imperative—this must is a light from the other world which shines on this world and provides it with direction and order. For Weil, then, obligation is a spiritual concept, which means that it transcends the world of competing interests and power games. It opens up a world where [[justice]] is possible and provides the foundation upon which all purely selfish and relative means find their true perspective.
  
−
=====Truth=====
+
Obligation has its analogy to the “Thou Shalt not…” of the [[Ten Commandments]]. It is the feeling of sacredness with regard to the holy. It is that which stops us from transgressing certain boundaries of ethical or spiritual behavior. It is that which, if profaned, inspires in us feelings and torments of guilt, and has its home in the [[conscience]]. For Weil, there is one obligation that supersedes all others. This is the obligation to respect and love the Other. It is recognizable in the feelings and emotions associated with harming something so essential to being human that if we violate it, we violate something sacred.
  
−
For Weil, truth is one of the most important needs of the soul. She says that all people should be nurtured in truth and be protected from sources of untruth, such as newspapers, false media accounts, and propaganda. Her main focus seems to be on the laborers again. She notes that a laborer who spends 8 hours a day working must not be expected to be able to have to distinguish between what is true and false in the papers or other media. They must expect that what they see, hear, or read is invariably true. To ensure truth in the media, she suggests setting up special courts to which those who believe that someone is spreading falsehoods can be brought and judged. For Weil, the dissemination of lies and falsehoods is a crime as dangerous as any other, if not worse than others because it attacks the human soul’s “most sacred need—protection against suggestion and falsehood.”
+
For Weil, without this supernatural world, we are left to a human world where power and force hold sway. The struggle for power is the motor of human history, she believes. It is the human condition. It is the source of human suffering and injustice. The world of spirit, for Weil, confronts this struggle for power. Obligations, therefore, provide a link to the spiritual realities that give life meaning and sustain the oppressed and sufferer with its healing power. Rights, on the other hand, are those relative ends which we strive for. They are not eternal in the way that obligations are, and instead rely on obligations to have legitimacy. That is, unless we have an obligation to respect what is essential and sacred in people, rights will lose their legitimacy.
  
−
====Uprootedness====
+
====Society and the State====
 +
Based on her analysis of obligation, Weil posits that there are certain spiritual needs of the human soul. Without the fulfillment of these needs, a human society will collapse and crush its citizens. For Weil the socio-cultural domain deserves respect. It is the sum of all human aspirations and wisdom. The flowering of human souls—past, present, and future—depends in many ways on the socio-cultural domain to thrive and grow.
  
−
Obviously, the concept of uprootedness and the need for roots is basic to Weil’s entire book. Why this metaphor? Is it a metaphor? In some passages, she seems to speak quite literally—as though humans and their social environments are plants and gardens that can be grown and planted through effort.
+
Weil uses the analogy of a garden in which the human [[soul]] is like a plant that thrives or dies, depending on the type of environment in which it grows. Like a plant that responds to good soil, sunshine and nutrients, the human soul responds to a nurturing social structure, the light of the spirit, and the elements of the state. For Weil, the nutrients of the soul, what she calls its food, when present in a society, reflect overall health for both the individual and the society.
  
−
As the title of the book suggests, there is a need for roots—that is, humans need roots to grow. Roots provide the stability and nourishment of a plant. The deeper they go, the more the plant can withstand bad weather and shocks to its system and the more extensive its root system the more nourishment it can receive to grow and remain healthy.
+
Even though Weil talks about societies and nations, she is emphatic in her denunciation of the notion that society or the nation is the most important entity in the spiritual life of an individual. She does not believe that the collective state has rights, which somehow outweigh those of the individual, nor does she believe that the mechanics of the social structure can by itself solve all the problems related to injustice. It is merely one of the means by which to strive for justice; it is not the end.
  
−
So let’s become clear about what the soil is and what the plant here is. The soil, for Weil, is the social structure that humans create to protect themselves from harm, catastrophes such as starvation, protection from animals, from the elements, and finally protection from each other. The roots are from the plant that symbolizes us humans.
+
==Works (in English)==
−
 
+
*''Gravity and Grace'' – (1952) Bison Books, 1997 edition: ISBN 0803298005.  
−
Just as plants need good roots and soil to root in, they also need sun. For Weil, the sun to humans is the world of the spirit. It provides light so the nutrients can work properly, just as photosynthesis creates energy from the nutrients using the energy of the sun.
+
*''The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind.'' – (1952) Routledge, 2001 edition: ISBN 0415271029
−
 
+
*''Waiting for God.'' – (1951) Harper Perennial, ISBN 0060959703
−
Now, let’s explain the logic of this metaphor. The plants in the soil, are human beings. The soil is the social and cultural structures that human beings have built up over the millennia. In most cases, they are evolving and in time we see more recent shoots sprout and grow from older plants. The laws governing the growth of these plants are similar to the laws that govern nature. They are just as rigid, just ineluctable as the law of gravity. The laws that govern the actions of humans in society mirror the laws of the natural world. That is, just as we find a struggle for existence and survival in nature, so also we find a similar struggle within human social structures. This, for Weil is the struggle for power.
+
*''Letter to a Priest.'' – (1954) Penguin, 2003 edition: ISBN 0142002674
−
 
+
*''Oppression and Liberty.'' – (1958) Routledge Kegan Paul, 2001 edition: ISBN 0415254078
−
In outline, this struggle is unique to human beings. It rests on the necessity of wrestling from the natural world a place that humans can survive in—a human environment which humans have created. At a certain level of human social organization, humans are at peace with other. They have little strife among themselves—the main battle is to find food and shelter and weather the natural elements. We can see examples of this in some tribes in the Amazon.
+
*''The Notebooks of Simone Weil.'' (1984) Routledge ISBN 0710085222, 2004  
−
 
 
−
As societies become more structured and humans begin to develop technical skills and more control of their natural environment, a division of labor occurs—That is, the work that is needed to build cities, grow food for larger populations, pave roads, carry out religious rites—this division of labor means that you must have those who give orders and those who follow orders. This arrangement of worker and manager is necessary for any extended and complex social activity. To conceive, plan, and carry out any great project, there must be those who give orders and those who take orders.
 
−
 
 
−
The struggle for power is not, Weil asserts, between the workers and the managers, as Marx and others had theorized. The struggle is between those who have the power. They fight and vie with each other for more and more power, more and more control of the undertakings and the direction that a society will take, as well as all the material and psychological rewards that come from power.
 
−
 
 
−
For Weil, this struggle is inevitable. There is no way to get around it, since human beings must continue—for their survival—to provide for themselves and to maintenance the social structure that is the main instrument of their continued existence. Weil sounds a very pessimistic note on this state of affairs—at the end of one of her essays, she notes that we are born slaves.
 
−
 
 
−
This pessimism is only brightened for Weil by the illumination provided by the spiritual reality that she came more and more to experience in her life. It is the spiritual world, with its revelation of obligations and ethical insights that enables societies to soften and re-route the immense pain and suffering caused by the struggle for power. Through the power of the spiritual, human beings can see that their final destiny does not merely end on earth, and that perhaps there will be a final reckoning for the actions that one has performed in this life in a life after death. She found this concept in many religions, from Mesoamerica to Egypt to Greece to China to Druid England.
 
−
 
 
−
Societies embed these spiritual insights and beliefs into their practices, rituals, and symbols. The spiritual insights of past generations are stored in memory and passed down from generation to generation. The customs, traditions, sacred writings and religion of a society are the embodiment of this spiritual treasury. As generation follows generation, individuals in the present can communicate with the past and the past communicate with the present through this accumulated spiritual wealth. In this way, a medium of continuity across time and space is created and the wisdom of the past can inform and perhaps direct the activities and behavior of the present as individuals plan and move into the future.
 
−
 
 
−
We have already seen what spiritual needs the individual has to have to remain free and just. A society that meets and provides these needs is a spiritually rooted one. This society will provide the material and spiritual needs of each member of the society. Weil finds these societies as part of the natural development of human life on earth. They are ordained by God as the creator and source of life. They are precious and should be honored and venerated for their beauty, but above for their ability to sustain human life in its material needs, if not more so with their spiritual journeys and desires.
 
−
 
 
−
Once a society begins to lose the ability to provide and meet these needs, it starts to die. Once individuals begin to lose their contact with the soil that nourishes and the sun that illuminates each person’s days, they decay from the inside out. Like a tree that has a sickness, the pith and meat of the tree soften and eventually cannot support the weight of the plant and it topples.
 
−
 
 
−
Why or how does this happen? The answer to this question is complex. But for now, we can say that for Weil, most societies do not die natural deaths. They are killed by conquerors and invaders who uproot civilizations, not only not leaving buildings and temples standing but also destroying those spiritual roots that had perhaps sustained the civilization for hundreds if not thousands of years.
 
−
 
 
−
This is an immense crime in Weil’s eyes. Through her study of history she had come to love the wonder and beauty of several civilizations. That they were no longer existent, beat into dust by empires, hurt her sense of spiritual balance. Yet, her moral outrage emanated more from a deep despair for she knew that as beautiful as art, architecture, poetry, and religion are, they are nothing compared to the beauty of a human being. Above the death of every civilization she heard a mournful dirge of immense pain and affliction which was the combined voices of each individual who had been hacked, burned, raped, and sodomized—whose human dignity and beauty had been profaned by the merciless and bloody boot of empire and desire for power.
 
−
 
 
−
It was this affliction which was caused by a human being treating another human like a piece of garbage which she ultimately saw as her own spiritual vocation in life. But above that, it was the vision of a world wherein humans have the responsibility and mission to alleviate as much of this affliction as possible—to create just and free societies where the cries of the orphans and the widows would be heard that drove her to use all of her spiritual and intellectual and physical resources to bring to birth a manifesto that would lay out the blueprint for rebirth and regeneration. This rebirth would serve as the basis for the rise of a civilization to equal those great ones of history…
 
−
 
 
−
In one of her essays, Weil says that the oppressed cannot voice their affliction, cannot cry out due to the weight of the pain they suffer. Her work—her words and her life—is an attempt to give voice to this affliction. This aspect of her work puts it on the level of the ancient Jewish prophets, those men and women who stood up against injustice in the name of God and gave voice to the widows and the orphans, those who are crushed beneath the unending struggle for power.
 
−
 
 
−
Note the eccentricity of several of the prophets: Ezekiel is said to have used dung to bake his bread, Isaiah to have lain on his side for months at a time. And then we recall Hosea, whom God told to marry a prostitute who continued to leave him, get impregnated, and yet God would tell him to take her back—numerous times. With this in mind, perhaps we can make room for a frail, sickly, young French Jew, who spent her life’s fire fighting for workers, the despised, the marginalized, and died by starving herself because she could not forget that men, women and children in her homeland were dying for want of food.
 
−
 
 
−
=====Causes of uprootedness=====
 
−
 
 
−
So the question becomes what causes uprootedness in the modern world. In her analysis of uprootedness, she begins with the alienation of the workers from their work and societies, goes on to discuss farmers, and finally takes on nations as a whole. As she confronts each situation, her analysis is clothed in mundane and non-sexy particulars. Yet, her analysis has the ring of authenticity because it combines not only the brilliance of intellectual analytical skills but also the emotional experience of having lived with the workers and seen and understood what their needs—material and spiritual—were.
 
−
 
 
−
For Weil, there are several main causes for uprootedness. We have already mentioned invasions; she also mentions money and education. These can cause uprootedness by undermining the foundation of why we act and what motivates us to act. Instead of obligations being fundamental to a society. For example, with money it is the desire to make money (or the tendency to see all things important as coming from or in terms of money) that causes uprootedness to take place.
 
−
 
 
−
Education can cause uprootedness by severing the culture of the elite from the rest of the people. Weil notes the effects of Renaissance, for example, in dissociating the people from their folk culture and having the cultures of antiquity, especially of Rome imposed by the intelligentsia onto the masses of individuals. For Weil, the Renaissance brought to birth the cult of technical science, which brings with it pragmatism and specialization, and severs the mind and soul from any relationship with the world of spirit. Her example of this is the child in school who can parrot the fact that the sun revolves around the earth but no longer looks to heaven for inspiration or reverence or awe.
 
−
 
 
−
Uprootedness is a disease that causes further uprootedness wherever it goes. Her examples of those who are uprooted include foreign invaders, French colonialists, America (because it is the land of immigrants), British marauders, and the Spanish. Uprootedness can have several outcomes, but the most dangerous is a kind of spiritual lethargy which resembles slavery and a form of activity that spawns and feeds on further uprooting others.
 
−
 
 
−
==Works==
 
−
*''La Pesanteur et la Grace'' (1947) ''Gravity and Grace'' – English translation 1952, Routledge Kegan Paul 2002 edition: ISBN 0-415-29001-5, Bison Books 1997 edition: ISBN 0-8032-9800-5. This was the first compendium of her work, compiled posthumously by her friend Gustave Thibon.
 
−
*''L'Enracinement'' (1949) ''The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind'' – English translation 1952, Routledge 2001 edition: ISBN 0-415-27102-9
 
−
*''Attente de Dieu'' (1950) ''Waiting for God'' – English translation 1951, Harper Perennial, ISBN 0-06-095970-3
 
−
*''Lettre à un religieux'' (1951) ''Letter to a Priest'' – English translation 1954, Penguin 2003 edition: ISBN 0-14-200267-4
 
−
*''Oppression et Liberté'' (1955) ''Oppression and Liberty'' – English translation 1958, Routledge Kegan Paul 2001 edition: ISBN 0-415-25407-8
 
−
*''The Notebooks of Simone Weil'' (1984) Routledge paperback: ISBN 0-7100-8522-2, 2004 hardcover: ISBN 0-415-32771-7
 
  
 
==Further reading==
 
==Further reading==
−
*Bell, Richard H. (1998) ''Simone Weil''. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0-8476-9080-6
+
*Bell, Richard H. (1998) ''Simone Weil.'' Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0847690806
−
*[[Robert Coles]] (1989) ''Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage''. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-07964-X. 2001 ed., Skylight Paths Publishing: ISBN 1-893361-34-9
+
*Robert Coles. (1989) ''Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage.'' Skylight ed. ISBN 1893361349
−
*Dietz, Mary. (1988). ''Between the Human and the Divine: The Political Thought of Simone Weil.''Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0847675753
+
*Dietz, Mary. (1988). ''Between the Human and the Divine: The Political Thought of Simone Weil.'' Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0847675753
−
*Doering, E. Jane, ed. (2004) ''The Christian Platonism Of Simone Weil''. University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0-268-02565-7
+
*Doering, E. Jane, ed. (2004) ''The Christian Platonism Of Simone Weil.'' University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0268025657
−
*Finch, Henry Leroy (1999) ''Simone Weil and the Intellect of Grace''. Continuum International Publishing. ISBN 0-8264-1360-9
+
*Finch, Henry Leroy. (1999) ''Simone Weil and the Intellect of Grace.'' Continuum International Publishing. ISBN 0826413609
−
*Gray, Francine Du Plessix (2001) ''Simone Weil''. Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-89998-4
+
*Gray, Francine Du Plessix. (2001) ''Simone Weil.'' Viking Press. ISBN 0670899984
−
*McLellan, David (1990) ''Utopian Pessimist: The Life and Thought of Simone Weil''. New York: Poseidon Press. ISBN 0-671-68521-X
+
*McLellan, David. (1990) ''Utopian Pessimist: The Life and Thought of Simone Weil.'' New York: Poseidon Press. ISBN 067168521X
−
*Morgan, Vance G. (2005) "Weaving the World: Simone Weil on Science, Mathematics, and Love". University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0-268-02564-9
+
*Morgan, Vance G. (2005) ''Weaving the World: Simone Weil on Science, Mathematics, and Love.'' University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0268025649
−
*Petrement, Simone (1976) ''Simone Weil: A Life''. New York: Schocken Books. 1988 edition: ISBN 0-8052-0862-3
+
*Petrement, Simone. (1976) ''Simone Weil: A Life.'' New York: Schocken Books. 1988 edition: ISBN 0805208623
−
*Plant, Stephen (1996) ''Simone Weil''. Zondervan: ISBN 0-00-627917-1. 1997 ed., Liguori Publications ISBN 0-7648-0116-3
+
*Plant, Stephen. (1996) ''Simone Weil.'' Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: ISBN 0006279171. 1997 ed.,  
−
*Radzins, Inese Astra (2006) ''Thinking Nothing: Simone Weil's Cosmology''. ProQuest/UMI, ISBN 0-542-07197-5
+
*Radzins, Inese Astra. (2006) ''Thinking Nothing: Simone Weil's Cosmology.'' ProQuest/UMI, ISBN 0542071975
−
*Rhees, Rush (2000) ''Discussions of Simone Weil''. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-4428-7
+
*Rhees, Rush. (2000) ''Discussions of Simone Weil.'' State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791444287
−
*Veto, Miklos (1994) ''The Religious Metaphysics of Simone Weil'', Joan Dargan, trans. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-2078-7
+
*Veto, Miklos. (1994) ''The Religious Metaphysics of Simone Weil.'' Joan Dargan, trans. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791420787
−
*Winch, Peter (1989) ''Simone Weil: 'The Just Balance' ''. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31743-6
+
*Winch, Peter. (1989) ''Simone Weil: 'The Just Balance'.'' Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521317436
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
−
*[http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/20/mar02/weil.htm "Simone Weil: A saint for our time?"] - from ''[[The New Criterion]]''
+
All links retrieved January 29, 2023.
−
*[http://www.nd.edu/~weilaws/ The American Weil Society] - American branch of ''Association pour l'étude de la pensée de Simone Weil''
 
−
*[http://members.aol.com/geojade/ Simone Weil's Home Page] - An unofficial page dedicated to Simone Weil
 
−
*[http://www.chemins-cathares.eu/010301_simone_weil.php Letter of Simone Weil to Déodat Roché]
 
−
*[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/13783 Simone Weil], an article in [[The New York Review of Books]] by [[Susan Sontag]].
 
−
 
 
−
[[Category:1909 births|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:1943 deaths|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:20th century philosophers|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:French Jews|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:Christian mystics|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:Alumni of the École Normale Supérieure|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:Christian philosophers|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:Converts to Christianity|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:French philosophers|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:French Resistance members|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:French spiritual writers|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:People from Paris|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:Political philosophers|Weil, Simone]]
 
−
[[Category:Nonviolence]]
 
  
−
[[ca:Simone Weil]]
+
*[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/13783 Simone Weil], an article in The New York Review of Books by Susan Sontag.
−
[[de:Simone Weil]]
+
===General Philosophy Sources===
−
[[es:Simone Weil]]
+
*[http://plato.stanford.edu/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy].
−
[[fr:Simone Weil]]
+
*[http://www.iep.utm.edu/ The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy].
−
[[ko:시몬 베유]]
+
*[http://www.bu.edu/wcp/PaidArch.html Paideia Project Online].
−
[[it:Simone Weil]]
+
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/ Project Gutenberg].
−
[[he:סימון וייל (פילוסופית)]]
 
−
[[nl:Simone Weil]]
 
−
[[ja:シモーヌ・ヴェイユ]]
 
−
[[pl:Simone Weil]]
 
−
[[pt:Simone Weil]]
 
−
[[ro:Simone Weil]]
 
−
[[sk:Simone Weil]]
 
−
[[fi:Simone Weil]]
 
−
[[sv:Simone Weil]]
 
  
  
 +
[[Category:philosophers]]
  
 
{{credit|112773005}}
 
{{credit|112773005}}

Latest revision as of 22:12, 29 January 2023

Simone Weil (February 3, 1909 – August 24, 1943) was a French philosopher and religious mystic. Although Jewish by birth, she was initially an atheist and later her religious thinking was primarily inspired by Christianity. She never officially converted, however, as she was sympathetic with other religions including Hinduism and Buddhism, which Christianity seemed to oppose. Her philosophical ideas were greatly influenced by Greek thought, particularly that of Plato. Throughout her life Weil was deeply concerned about the poor and suffering and much of her writings were devoted to social and political issues. She, herself, suffered from poor health, some of which was due to her rigorous asceticism and self-denial.

Life

Childhood and school years

Simone Weil was born in Paris on February 3, 1909 to an agnostic family of Jewish origin. Her father was a distinguished doctor and she had one sibling, a brother who was three years her elder, and who was later to become the famous mathematician, André Weil (1906-1998). From a very early age Simone sympathized with the poor and oppressed. In fact, in 1915, when only six years old, she refused sugar in solidarity with the troops entrenched along the Western Front.

In her youth Weil was a brilliant and precocious student who became proficient in ancient Greek by the age of twelve. Also at the age of twelve she began to experience intense headaches, which she would suffer continuously throughout her life. In her late teens, she became involved in the worker's movement and wrote political tracts, marched in demonstrations, and advocated worker's rights. During this period, she considered herself a Marxist, pacifist, and trade unionist. In 1928 Weil scored first in the entrance exam to the École Normale Supérieure. (Simone de Beauvoir, another well-known philosopher, scored second.) After passing her agregation in 1931, Weil taught philosophy at a secondary school for girls in Le Puy. Teaching philosophy in high schools throughout Europe would remain her primary employment throughout her short life.

Political activism

While teaching, Weil often took actions out of sympathy with the working class. When at Le Puy, she became involved in local political activity, supporting unemployed and striking workers despite criticism from the higher classes. She also wrote about social and economic issues, including Oppression and Liberty and numerous short articles for trade union journals. This work critiqued popular Marxist thought and offered an account of the limits of capitalism and socialism.

She participated in the French general strike of 1933, called to protest unemployment and wage labor cuts. The following year she took a 12-month leave of absence from her teaching position to work incognito as a laborer in two factories, one owned by Renault. Weil hoped that this experience would allow her to connect with the working class so as to put her thought into action and so produce greater solidarity among the classes. Unfortunately, her poor health and inadequate physical strength forced her to quit after some months. In 1935 she resumed teaching, but donated most of her income to political causes and charitable endeavors.

In 1936, despite her pacifism, she fought in the Spanish Civil War on the Second Spanish Republic side. After spilling hot oil on herself over a cooking fire, however, she was forced to leave Spain. Throughout the remainder of her life, she continued to write essays on labor and management issues and the devastating effects of war.

Encounter with mysticism

While in Assisi in the spring of 1937, Weil visited the church in which Saint Francis of Assisi had often prayed. While in the church, she underwent a profound religious experience, which forced her to her knees and led her to pray for the first time in her life. She had another, more powerful revelation a year later, and after 1938 her writings became more mystical and spiritual, while at the same time retaining a focus on social and political issues. She was attracted to Roman Catholicism, but declined to be baptized as an act of solidarity with those ‘outside’ the Church. (She explained this refusal in letters published in Waiting for God.) During World War II, she lived for a time in Marseille, receiving spiritual direction from a Dominican friar. Around this time she met the French Catholic author Gustave Thibon, who later edited some of her work.

Weil did not limit her religious study to Christianity. She was keenly interested in other traditions, as well, such as Greek philosophy, Stoicism, Hinduism (especially the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita), and Mahayana Buddhism. She believed that all these traditions were valid paths to God, and so much of her reluctance to join the Catholic Church can be attributed to the Church’s refusal to recognize non-Christian traditions. In this, she can be said to be a forerunner in the ecumenical movement, which is very much alive today. At the same time, however, she was opposed to religious syncretism, claiming that it effaced the particularity of the individual traditions:

Each religion is alone true, that is to say, that at the moment we are thinking of it we must bring as much attention to bear on it as if there were nothing else…. A "synthesis" of religion implies a lower quality of attention.

Last years

In 1942, Weil traveled first to the United States and then to London, where she joined the French Resistance. Her punishing work regime, however, soon took a heavy toll. In 1943 she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and instructed to rest and eat well. She refused special treatment, though, because of her long-standing commitment to solidarity with those who are suffering. Instead, she limited her food intake to what she believed were the rations of the residents of occupied France, who were dying of hunger. She was soon moved to a sanatorium in Ashford, Kent, where she continued to refuse food. After a lifetime of battling illness and frailty, Weil died on August 24, 1943 from starvation and pulmonary tuberculosis. She is buried in Ashford, New Cemetery. The majority of her writings were published after her death.

Main Philosophical Ideas

Christian Hellenist

Although Simone Weil’s thought is unorthodox and so defies facile classification, her philosophical ideas align mostly with the tradition known as “Christian Hellenism,” which fuses Greek metaphysics with Christian theology. For while she held firmly to many of the basic tenets of classical Greek philosophy, she thought this “love of wisdom” finds its ultimate fulfillment in the soul’s ascent to God. For Weil the ancient thinkers, particularly Plato, were the precursors to Christian thought. In fact, she considered Plato to be the “father of mysticism.” According to Weil, the wisdom of Plato is ultimately attained, not through human reason alone, but by the soul’s ascent to God made possible only by the mystical experience of transcendence.

Given Weil’s interpretation of Plato and her defense of the world’s great religions, she is quite critical of the claims of positive science, which believes truths are attained solely through its own empirical methods and procedures. For Weil such a materialistic view of reality leads to the technical manipulation of power and the loss of spiritual values. Not that she was opposed to the scientific enterprise and the advances that are made through it. Rather she warns of the dangers of the contemporary attitudes toward science, which views the possible successes of science to be unlimited. It is imperative, Weil insists, that the limits of science be recognized in order to establish its proper task as well as to surpass it in the attainment of a more certain truth, namely the certainty of the eternal or infinite.

Moreover, her critique of science was also directed at the abstraction of science (and even certain forms of traditional metaphysics) insofar as scientists (and philosophers) failed to put their theoretical knowledge into practice. In this sense, Weil was a highly ethical and religious writer who thought the proper fulfillment of philosophy was in action. This is why even after her shift from atheism to faith she continued to write on and be actively engaged in social and political issues. Method, for her, could not be a purely abstract and disengaged one but must instead be applied to the actions of one’s life.

What marks off the "self" is method; it has no other source than ourselves: it is when we really employ method that we really begin to exist. As long as one employs method only on symbols one remains within the limits of a sort of game. In action that has method about it, we ourselves act, since it is we ourselves who found the method; we really act because what is unforeseen presents itself to us.

Religious Philosophy

Overview

It is difficult to speak conclusively of Weil's religious thought since it exists only in the form of scattered aphorisms in her notebooks and in a handful of letters. But although these texts do not offer a very direct path to an understanding and evaluation of her religious ideas, certain generalizations can be made. First, Weil's religious thinking is better thought of as a ‘religious philosophy’ rather than a ‘theology’ because her thought is quite unorthodox in that she rarely considered (or at times opposed) the traditional teachings or dogma of organized religion(s). Despite (and perhaps because of) this fact, her thought and writings are deeply personal and religious. Some commentators, in fact, have called her a “secular saint” or “mystic.”

Her religious philosophy is both profound and complex as it draws from various religious sources. Although primarily Christian, she also draws deeply from Judaism, Stoicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Her unorthodoxy can be seen, however, in her rejection of certain books of the Old Testament, which she viewed to be too violent and so unworthy of the nature of God (such as the book of Joshua). Moreover, she rejected the historical nature of the Jews as the “chosen people,” which of course was hers by birth as well. (Her often scathing attacks on Judaism as an organized and historical religion have led some critics to view her thought as a kind of masochism. Her view is particularly problematic in that she was writing just prior to and during the Holocaust.)

Moreover, some scholars have labeled her religious thought as gnostic or Manichean because of her seemingly other worldliness in distinguishing between the pure goodness of God and spiritual nature and the evils of the body or material nature. And indeed, such criticism finds legitimacy not only in her support of the mathematical mysticism of the Pythagoreans and Platonists, but also in the often disparaging rhetoric she employs in speaking of the temporal world. Defenders of Weil, however, are quick to point out that this critique does not hold up in regard to her understanding of creation. For Weil does not regard the world as a debased creation of a demiurge but is rather an indirect expression of God's love. Although she recognizes this world as a place of evil, affliction, and the brutal mixture of chance and necessity, she nonetheless acknowledges the wealth of beauty and goodness, which this world reflects. In the end, like all great mystics, her disparagement of this world is perhaps best seen as a rejection of the transience and illusoriness of the earthly world in favor of a transcendent, mystic vision of an eternal and immutable reality.

Absence

One of Weil’s central ideas is her notion of absence. She believed that God created by an act of self-delimitation. In other words, because God is conceived as a kind of ultimate fullness, a perfect being, no creature could exist except where God was not. Withdrawal or absence, in other words, is a necessary condition for the possibility of our existence. There is, then, an original kenosis or self-emptying of God in his creating space for all those beings who are not God to exist. This initial kenosis of creation precedes the corrective kenosis of Christ's incarnation. For this reason, we are born into a kind of “fallen state” not only because of original sin, but because to be created at all we had to be precisely what God is not, i.e., we had to be the opposite of what is holy. Our very limitation as finite and temporal beings separates us from God by an infinite abyss.

This more Neoplatonic notion of creation responds to the problem of evil by explaining evil in terms of the absence, limit, or negation of what is good. Only God or the One is purely good and without evil, since He is without limitation (infinite). There is, then, a kind of necessity to evil in the created world due to our limitations and the absence of God. And yet, we are powerless in ourselves to fulfill that absence. Nonetheless, Weil believed that evil, and its consequence, affliction, served the role of driving us out of ourselves and towards God. "The extreme affliction which overtakes human beings does not create human misery, it merely reveals it."

Affliction

Weil's concept of affliction (malheur) goes beyond simple suffering, though it certainly includes it. Affliction is a physical and mental anguish that cuts so deep it scourges the very soul. For Weil only some souls are capable of truly experiencing this intense affliction; these are precisely those souls which are least deserving of it. For they are the ones who are most prone or open to spiritual realization.

War and oppression are often the most intense cases of affliction. Affliction is associated both with necessity and with chance. It is fraught with necessity because it is hardwired into existence by the very nature of the absence of God. Affliction is an existential condition, then, in that it imposes itself upon the sufferer with the full force of the inescapable. It is also subject to chance, however, inasmuch as chance, too, is an inescapable part of the nature of existence. The element of chance is essential to the unjust character of affliction. In other words, affliction does not necessarily (or even usually) follow from sin. Rather, like the randomness of nature it simply strikes whomever it will. Like gravity it weighs the soul down such that only grace can uplift it.

The man who has known pure joy, if only for a moment… is the only man for whom affliction is something devastating. At the same time he is the only man who has not deserved the punishment. But, after all, for him it is no punishment; it is God holding his hand and pressing rather hard. For, if he remains constant, what he will discover buried deep under the sound of his own lamentations is the pearl of the silence of God.

Decreation, Waiting, and Metaxu

Since beneath the sea of affliction one finds the “pearl of the silence of God,” Weil emphasizes the need for “decreation.” Just as creation is what provides the space for our own existence, and so separation from God, decreation is necessary for our unity or contact with God. For Weil the sole power that we possess in ourselves is the ability to say ‘I’. We must sacrifice this power for the sake of God. We must give back what he gave to us. In this way, we destroy, destruct or uproot ourselves. One sees in this notion of decreation the influence on Weil of eastern thought. For the ego must be splintered or dissolved in order for one to experience a higher reality.

But although decreation is a necessary condition for our contact with God it is not a sufficient one. That is, it is not something we are ourselves can bring about. It requires God’s movement toward us or, in other words, grace. For Weil this meant that waiting was an essential element in the ascent of the soul toward God. She held that God is already waiting for us, such that we merely need to “turn around” and face him. At the same time, our inability to do this on our own means we too have to wait. That is, wait for God to traverse the infinite distance which separate us from Himself. It is this element of waiting which gives Weil’s thought an eschatological character to it.

Despite this need for waiting our very affliction can be the means with which to make contact with God. Weil uses the concept of metaxu, which she borrowed from Plato, in claiming that that which separates also connects (just as a wall, which separates two prisoners, can be used to tap messages). This idea of connecting distance was significant for Weil's understanding of the created realm. The material world and all its physical aspects can be regarded as serving the same function for us in relation to God that a blind man's stick serves for him in relation to the world about him. They do not afford direct insight, but can be used indirectly to bring the mind into contact with reality. In this way, absence can be transformed into a kind of presence.

Obligations

For Weil obligation has priority over rights. For unless a person understands that they have certain obligations in life, towards themselves, towards others, and towards society, the notion of right will have no power or value. At the same time, obligations have a transcendental origin. They come from a realm that imposes an imperative—this must is a light from the other world which shines on this world and provides it with direction and order. For Weil, then, obligation is a spiritual concept, which means that it transcends the world of competing interests and power games. It opens up a world where justice is possible and provides the foundation upon which all purely selfish and relative means find their true perspective.

Obligation has its analogy to the “Thou Shalt not…” of the Ten Commandments. It is the feeling of sacredness with regard to the holy. It is that which stops us from transgressing certain boundaries of ethical or spiritual behavior. It is that which, if profaned, inspires in us feelings and torments of guilt, and has its home in the conscience. For Weil, there is one obligation that supersedes all others. This is the obligation to respect and love the Other. It is recognizable in the feelings and emotions associated with harming something so essential to being human that if we violate it, we violate something sacred.

For Weil, without this supernatural world, we are left to a human world where power and force hold sway. The struggle for power is the motor of human history, she believes. It is the human condition. It is the source of human suffering and injustice. The world of spirit, for Weil, confronts this struggle for power. Obligations, therefore, provide a link to the spiritual realities that give life meaning and sustain the oppressed and sufferer with its healing power. Rights, on the other hand, are those relative ends which we strive for. They are not eternal in the way that obligations are, and instead rely on obligations to have legitimacy. That is, unless we have an obligation to respect what is essential and sacred in people, rights will lose their legitimacy.

Society and the State

Based on her analysis of obligation, Weil posits that there are certain spiritual needs of the human soul. Without the fulfillment of these needs, a human society will collapse and crush its citizens. For Weil the socio-cultural domain deserves respect. It is the sum of all human aspirations and wisdom. The flowering of human souls—past, present, and future—depends in many ways on the socio-cultural domain to thrive and grow.

Weil uses the analogy of a garden in which the human soul is like a plant that thrives or dies, depending on the type of environment in which it grows. Like a plant that responds to good soil, sunshine and nutrients, the human soul responds to a nurturing social structure, the light of the spirit, and the elements of the state. For Weil, the nutrients of the soul, what she calls its food, when present in a society, reflect overall health for both the individual and the society.

Even though Weil talks about societies and nations, she is emphatic in her denunciation of the notion that society or the nation is the most important entity in the spiritual life of an individual. She does not believe that the collective state has rights, which somehow outweigh those of the individual, nor does she believe that the mechanics of the social structure can by itself solve all the problems related to injustice. It is merely one of the means by which to strive for justice; it is not the end.

Works (in English)

  • Gravity and Grace – (1952) Bison Books, 1997 edition: ISBN 0803298005.
  • The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind. – (1952) Routledge, 2001 edition: ISBN 0415271029
  • Waiting for God. – (1951) Harper Perennial, ISBN 0060959703
  • Letter to a Priest. – (1954) Penguin, 2003 edition: ISBN 0142002674
  • Oppression and Liberty. – (1958) Routledge Kegan Paul, 2001 edition: ISBN 0415254078
  • The Notebooks of Simone Weil. (1984) Routledge ISBN 0710085222, 2004

Further reading

  • Bell, Richard H. (1998) Simone Weil. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 0847690806
  • Robert Coles. (1989) Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage. Skylight ed. ISBN 1893361349
  • Dietz, Mary. (1988). Between the Human and the Divine: The Political Thought of Simone Weil. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-0847675753
  • Doering, E. Jane, ed. (2004) The Christian Platonism Of Simone Weil. University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0268025657
  • Finch, Henry Leroy. (1999) Simone Weil and the Intellect of Grace. Continuum International Publishing. ISBN 0826413609
  • Gray, Francine Du Plessix. (2001) Simone Weil. Viking Press. ISBN 0670899984
  • McLellan, David. (1990) Utopian Pessimist: The Life and Thought of Simone Weil. New York: Poseidon Press. ISBN 067168521X
  • Morgan, Vance G. (2005) Weaving the World: Simone Weil on Science, Mathematics, and Love. University of Notre Dame Press. ISBN 0268025649
  • Petrement, Simone. (1976) Simone Weil: A Life. New York: Schocken Books. 1988 edition: ISBN 0805208623
  • Plant, Stephen. (1996) Simone Weil. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: ISBN 0006279171. 1997 ed.,
  • Radzins, Inese Astra. (2006) Thinking Nothing: Simone Weil's Cosmology. ProQuest/UMI, ISBN 0542071975
  • Rhees, Rush. (2000) Discussions of Simone Weil. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791444287
  • Veto, Miklos. (1994) The Religious Metaphysics of Simone Weil. Joan Dargan, trans. State University of New York Press. ISBN 0791420787
  • Winch, Peter. (1989) Simone Weil: 'The Just Balance'. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521317436

External links

All links retrieved January 29, 2023.

  • Simone Weil, an article in The New York Review of Books by Susan Sontag.

General Philosophy Sources

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=Simone_Weil&oldid=1098444

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Copyright Logo
Powered by MediaWiki