A Detailed Listing of Topics Contained in Parts II and III of The Need for Roots
What follows is a detailed listing of topics contained in the last two parts of The Need for Roots (Routledge, 2002, Arthur Wills trans. {carrots cover}
Note: The pagination between the 1952 Routledge edition and the 2002 Routledge Classics edition is not quite the same. It is typically one or two pages adrift. The pagination referenced below is to the 2002 (“carrots”) edition.
ht: DL
Since the first part of TNFR already had such a listing in the table of contents, there was no need to revisit that part. Though what follows is not designed to serve as an index, it does, nonetheless, provide the reader with a better overview and micro-view of TNFR.
As the listings below reveal, Weil covered a wide range of topics in TFNR – more than 130! While the list could be yet more detailed, to do so would, functionally speaking, turn it into an index.
Additionally, it bears noting that Weil’s unfinished report for the Free French was not penned as a book. Rather, it is a work done in a matter of several months with few changes and at a time when Weil was busy writing essays, letters, and notebook entries, often for the better part of an entire day. The manuscript she left behind had neither a title nor any chapter divisions or headings.
As Jane Doering has noted: “the French annotated version of Enracinement, as set out in the Oeuvres Complètes, has an alternate form of listing the material treated in The Need for Roots.”
Echoing that point and adding to it, David Levy has observed: “the table of contents [in The Need for Roots] is misleading since it omits Weil’s original numbering, and by my reckoning miscounts and mispairs the needs” mentioned in Part I of TNFR. He also pointed out that there is an invaluable “analytical table of contents for TNFR in OC V:2, pp. 459-462.” Hence, the French reader is directed to consult that work. Meanwhile, the listing below must suffice for now for the English-speaking world. (I am grateful to Jane and David for permitting me to draw from their private e-mails sent to me in late August of 2021.)
Forthcoming
Eric Springsted & Ronald Collins, A Declaration of Duties Toward Humankind: A Critical Companion to Simone Weil’s The Need for Roots (Carolina Academic Press, 2022). Reports are that there is a new translation of TNFR by Ros Schwartz to be published by Penquin.
Part II: Uprootedness 43
Rooted and Uprooted 43
Military Conquest 44
Uprootedness in Towns 45
Education 45
Two Options for the Uprooted 47
Revolution 48
Love of the Past 51
Plight of Workers 53
Modern Military 55
Workers and Machines 57
The State 61
Unions 63
Vichy Government 65
Educating Workers 65
Obstacles to Culture 66
Teaching Geometry 69
Slavery 71
Intellectuals and Workers 71
Proposals 73
Breakdown of Working Class 75
From Theory to Action 78
Uprootedness in The Countryside 78
Workers and Peasants 79
Political Parties 80
Slavery 81
The State 84
Military Service 85
Science 87
Moral Rerooting of Peasantry 88
The Role of Churches 89
God and the Classroom 91
Beauty 93
Need for Greatness 97
Uprootedness and Nationhood 98
On Ancestors 99
Continuity in Time 100
Patriotism 102
On Taxes 104
Monarchy 105
Lost Cultures 106
Progress 110
Patriotic Continuity 113
Love of God and the State 115
Loss of the Past 119
Police 120
Politics 121
Religious Life 123
Labor and Money 123
Social Class 125
On Philosophy 130
Justice and Patriotism 133
Hitler and Propaganda 134
History of Morals 136
Patriotism and Morality 142
On War 144
Fascism 146
Realist Politics 148
Leftist Groups 150
On Idolatry 154
On Killing 155
On Obligation 156
On Pacifism 159
Two Distinct Ways of Loving 170
Crime and Compassion 171
Obedience to Law 178
On Legitimacy 181
Diagnosing the Case 181
Part III: The Growing of Roots 185
Method for Inspiring 185
Classification of Means of Education 188
Authority Attaching to a Symbol 191
French Revolution 193
People of Color 195
On Inspiration 195
Free French 196
On Writing and the Use of Words 197
State of the Mind of the French 198
More on Words 198-199
Medium-Quality Motives 199
Reflection on Effects 200
On Circumstances 201
Three Kinds of Responsibility 202
The Value of Orders 203
On the Technical Side of Things 203
Military Objectives 203
Britain and France 204
Transmission of Truths 205
On Action 206
Reflections on the Lord’s Name 208
Transformative Actions 209
Transference Mechanism 210
Methods of Action & Subversive Resistance 211
On Organizations 212
Spiritual Mission 213
Politics and Art 214
Method of Political Action 215
Four Obstacles to a Worthy Civilization 216
Our Conception of Greatness 217
On Affliction 218
The Most Serious Mistakes 219
The Romans and the Druids 220
On Patriotism 221
On History and Documents 221
On Hitler 223
On Greatness 225
On Heresy and Cruelty 226
On Progress 227
On the Romans 228
Teaching History 229
Different Forms of Greatness 232
More on Hitler 238 & 240
Modern Science 239
Greek Science 241
Christianity, Science and Faith 244
Scientific Research 249
On Faith 249
Spirit of Truth 251
More on Greatness 252
Idolatry 256
Religion and Science 258
On Providence 259
Supernatural Mechanisms 261
On Miracles 263
Mystical Ecstasy 264
The Resurrection 266
Christianity and Rome 269
On Obedience 270
Rome, Hitler 272
Roman Idolatry 274
More on Providence 278
On Language 280
On Reading 282
On Balance and the Order of the World 283, 285
On Necessity 287
On Math 288
Modern Psychology 289
On Physical Labor 292
On the First and Second Renaissances 295
More on Physical Labor 296
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