At the Threshold with Simone Weil: A Political Theory of Migration and Refuge
Duke University, PhD
Online Dissertations read more
The ethical implications of Simone Weil’s Notion of reading
In this thesis I develop the ethical implications inherent in a short paper written by Simone Weil, entitled ‘Essay on the Notion of Reading,’ with a view to exploring possible ways in which we are able to incorporate the unconditional value of each and every human being into our everyday apprehension of the world. Mindful of the fact that conceptions of unconditional value tend to be associated with religious belief, I make a distinction between religious theory and practical religious engagement, privileging the latter, in order to show the common ground between theistic and nontheistic ways of understanding unconditional value. My focus is on practical ethics, and the relationship between our direct and immediate ethical responses and their conceptualization plays an important part in my thesis, in tandem with an important distinction between absolute and relative forms of evaluation. The emphasis I place on the relationship between direct responses and their conceptualization is developed in the light of Wittgensteinian philosophical insights, both of Wittgenstein’s own and those of certain other philosophers who employ versions of his method. I also draw on both Platonist and Aristotelian conceptions of virtue, with particular attention to the relationship between our natural ethical responses and the terminology in which they find expression.
The University of Auckland, Ph.D. dissertation (2012).
A Metaethical Study of Simone Weil’s Notion of Attention Through Critical Practical Analogy
University of the Arts London, PhD
Love for God’s Necessity: the ambiguity of Simone Weil’s hupomone,
Universiteit van Tilburg
Teaching As A Moral Act: Simone Weil’s Liminality As An Addition To The Moral Conversation in Education
University of Central Florida, PhD
Educating for Love of Wisdom : John Dewey and Simone Weil
Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, PhD
The Influence of Jacques Ellul, Martin Heidegger and Simone Weil on George Grant’s Changing Understanding of Technology, Grant, G., In Defence of Simone Weil
McMaster University, PhD
Towards a poetics of hope: Simone Weil, Fanny Howe and Alice Walker
University of Wollongong, PhD
Weil, Truth and Life: Simone Weil’s pedagogy as auto-philosophical therapy of soul
Contemporary philosophers, wary of the vaulted metaphysical systems proposed by Enlightenment thinkers, have explored alternative avenues of doing philosophy. Unfortunately, these “new” philosophical systems often neglect their roots in ancient philosophical practice. The purpose of this thesis is to textually ascertain the ancient concept of philosophy as a way of life in the contemporary philosophical work of Simone Weil. This connection is demonstrated in two distinct yet related ways. The practical pedagogy demonstrated through biographical work and student lecture notes provide a distinct vision of her life’s bent toward practical philosophy. In addition, her Notebooks, read in light of Pierre Hadot’s interpretation of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, demonstrate the pervasiveness of this way of life in her personal textual engagement. In Weil, therefore, we find an important contemporary instance of continuing and reinterpreting the ancient philosophical practice where she finds her philosophical origin.
A thesis submitted to the faculty of the Institute for Christian Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy, Toronto, Ontario, July 2007.
Weil, Truth and Life: Simone Weil and Ancient Pedagogy as a Way of Life
Institute for Christian Studies, MA
