“Was Simone Weil a Jew?”
Partisan Review, vol. 68, no. 4, pp. 629-641
Recommended
“Theoretical Picture of a Free Society” (1934)
The Partly Examined Life Podcasts
Meditations on a Corpse
From New Left Review, Issue 111 (May|June 2018).
Simone Weil’s Method: Essaying Reality through Inquiry and Action
Abstract
I read a selection of Simone Weil’s political philosophy in the way that she reads Marx – as forming “not a doctrine but a method of understanding and action.” My claim is that Weil’s method is likewise twofold: she attempts to understand the world through inquiry, then she tests her understanding through action. First, I read “Reflections Concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression” (1934). In that essay, inquiry, exemplified by Weil’s calling into question the term “revolution,” is her way of understanding reality around her, including forces of oppression and possibilities for liberation. Second, I read her “Factory Journal” (1934–1935), which records how she tested her theories from “Reflections” by placing herself in French factories. My conclusion states the fruits of Weil’s method for philosophy today: an interrogation of present political keywords (resistance, resilience) and a practice of philosophy as a way of life.
Comparative and Continental Philosophy, vol. 13 (Nov. 23, 2021)
Writing and Acting as a Translator
Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God
Excerpted, by Christopher Lacovetti on Medium, from Simone Weil, Waiting for God (HarperCollins, 2009), pp. 57–65.
A Spiritual Friendship: Simone Weil and Père Perrin
“Simone Weil’s Notion of Attention,” Part II
Audio
A Detailed Listing of Topics Contained in Parts II and III of The Need for Roots
Transcendent Rebellion: The Influence of Simone Weil on Albert Camus’ Esthetics
ABSTRACT: The relationship between the thought of Albert Camus and Simone Weil has been partially explored by scholars since their deaths. However, current scholarship does not fully explain the influence Weil’s life and work had on Camus’ esthetics, a full treatment of which is necessary to truly understand the significance of Camus’ adoption of the idea of the rebel as artist. Camus’ thought progresses significantly from his early esthetics of the will in his Essay on Music, affirming art as fundamentally an egoistic act, to a later esthetics of transcendence, affirming the selflessness of artistic rebellion.
This paper argues that Camus’ development both mirrors Weil’s own philosophical development and corresponds to Camus’ exposure to and assimilation of Weil’s thought on decreation, beauty, and the transcendent. By establishing that Camus’ development in his esthetic and political theories corresponds to his exposure to and praise of Weil, I argue that Weil’s influence on Camus explains his later turn away from Nietzsche and to the affirmation of human nature, beauty in the world, and selfless rebellion and creation.
Perspectives on Political Science (Nov. 2021)
Philip Bunn is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research brings both ancient and modern political thought to bear on contemporary issues, with a focus on normative questions relating to technology.
