Recommended

Effing the Ineffable: The Mysticism of Simone Weil and Ludwig Wittgenstein

K G M Earl read

Both Simone Weil and Ludwig Wittgenstein hold mysticism—i.e., the belief in something utterly transcendent—centrally. The mysticism present in Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico- Philosophicus presents a problem: if “the mystical” is “deep” nonsense, and there is something important that cannot be sensibly presented in language, we are left in an undesirable situation. The mystical is taken to be of paramount importance but is ultimately inaccessible to reason. Weil, starting with political and theological considerations, arrives at a similar problem. A mystical position yields the “problem of mysticism”: There is the mystical; it is of crucial importance, and it is inaccessible to our reason. Weil’s mystical praxis of decreation is a solution to the problem. This does not present a way that we can come to the mystical, but a way that we can become aware of its revelation, which bypasses our reason.

Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia, MA dissertation.

The Growing of Roots in Times of Turmoil and Uncertainty: Simone Weil’s Legacy

Paula Nicole C. Eugenio read

Abstract: This paper aims to provide an answer to the question: how does one attain authenticity through the lens of Simone Weil’s philosophy? It explores the connections among her political, social, and religious ideas, using her notions of affliction through uprootedness and attention to present her philosophy of authentic living. This exposition of Weil’s search for authenticity is an exploration of her social and religious thoughts. This is done through a close reading of her works and current contextualization of themes such as affliction brought about by war and other social ills and how attentive living could help us achieve authenticity. Authenticity is found in her concept of the different needs of the soul, specifically, the need for roots. Since this need for roots does not pertain only to the historical sense but also to the spiritual sense, I try to reinforce the idea that one cannot separate her social thought from that of religion.

Lectio 1 (August 2021): 55-71.

This is an excerpt from Paula Nicole C. Eugenio, “Simone Weil’s Philosophy of Authentic Living” (Master’s Thesis, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, May 2020).

 

Mysticism, Nihilism, Feminism: New Critical Essays on the Theology of Simone Weil

Thomas Idinopolus, & Josephine Knopp, eds.

Johnson City, TN: Institution of Social Studies and Arts

Philosophy for Darker Times: An Approach to Simone Weil’s Insights 

Noel Boulting read

This important new study examines the work of Simone Weil; French mystic, social philosopher, and activist in the French Resistance in the Second World War. Weil’s posthumously published works had a major influence on French and English social thought. Philosophy for Darker Times relates Weil’s insights to specific significant issues in our own time.

Ethics International Press, Inc (June 15, 2022)

Table of Contents 

Introduction

Chapter 1         The God of Philosophy and the God of Religion Debate Revisited

Chapter 2         Plato’s Philosophy Manifested in Simone Weil’s life and her Writings

Chapter 3         ‘Scale Relative Ontology’ as a way of understanding Simone Weil’s treatment of Scientific Activity

Chapter 4         Nothing, Mysticism and three dimensions in ‘Scale Relative Ontology’

Chapter 5         Simone Weil’s Mysticism understood through Apophatic Theology

Chapter 6         Intentionalism and ‘God’s Fiction’

Appendix I       Five Scientific Metaphysical Stances in relation to the Standard Model of Quantum Theory

Appendix II      On the Relationship between Simone Weil’s and Hannah Arendt’s  Philosophies

Appendix III    The Stumbling Block: The Rationality Problem

The Author

Bibliography

About the author

Noel Boulting studied at the London Institute of Education, Birkbeck College, London, and the London School of Economics He has taught philosophy at Universities in the in the UK and USA. His philosophy club, NOBOSS, was formed in 1977, and meets at the University of Kent, UK. His publications include articles on C. S. Peirce, Edward Bullough, Thomas Hobbes, Aldo Leopold, Jean Paul Sartre, Simone Weil, Vico, Max Horkheimer and the Aesthetics of Nature. His writings on Weil include: