Simone Weil: Basic Writings

Simone Weil is one of the most profound and thought-provoking thinkers of the 20th century. A teacher, factory and farm labourer, a political activist at home and abroad, a loving friend, daughter and sister—all these manifest a life devoted to the good in its many forms. Her writings explore the good open to us and the various routes to it, spanning philosophy, politics, science and spirituality. While she saw her vocation primarily as a philosopher—examining questions concerning human faculties, action and thought, the limits of language and our need of mediation, suffering and beauty for contact with reality—her startlingly original thought is often obscured by her having been too readily categorized as a Christian mystic.

Simone Weil: Basic Writings is an expertly edited anthology of Weil’s most important writings, presenting her philosophy as it relates to the architecture of human nature, politics, work, necessity, beauty, goodness and God. Working from the definitive French edition of Weil’s complete writings, D. K. Levy and Marina Barabas have translated the essays anew or for the first time, adding important notes and references absent from existing English language editions of Weil’s work.

Following an extensive introduction that gives an overview of Weil’s life and thought, each part opens with a short preface situating the selected essays within Weil’s oeuvre.

Simone Weil: Basic Writings provides an excellent entry point to Weil’s philosophy, as well as a reference for students and scholars of Weil’s thought in philosophy and related disciplines.

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Table of Contents

Introduction D. K. Levy

Notes on the Translation D. K. Levy and Marina Barabas

Part 1: Here below

Introduction to Part 1 D. K. Levy

1. Study for a declaration of obligations to the human being

2. Concerning syndicalism “Single, Apolitical, Mandatory”

3. Let’s not start the Trojan War again

4. Legitimacy of the provisional government

5. What does the Occitanian inspiration consist in

6. Prelude to a declaration of duties toward the human being

7. Is there a Marxist doctrine?

8. Reflections on quantum theory

9. Morality and literature

10. Essay on the concept of reading

11. Some reflexions on the concept of value

12. This war is a war of religions

13. Are we fighting for justice?

14. Is the human person sacred?

Part 2: Mediation

Introduction to Part 2 D. K. Levy

15. Precondition of non-servile work

16. Reflections on the good use of school studies with a view to the love of God

17. Sketch of the “Commentary on Pythagorean texts”

18. Concerning the Pythagorean Doctrine

Part 3: Beyond the sky

Introduction to Part 3 D. K. Levy

19. Theory of Sacraments

20. Forms of the implicit love of God

i. Love of one’s neighbour

ii. Love of the order of the world

iii. Love of religious practices

iv. Friendship

v. Implicit love and explicit love

21. God’s love and affliction.

Index

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Related

Simone Weil’s Summary Notes “Concerning the Pythagorean Doctrine”, Attention (May 2024), translated & introduced by D.K. Levy and Marina Barabas

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