Recommended

SIMONE WEIL – La vie au risque de la vérité (SIMONE WEIL – Life at the risk of the truth)

Catherine Deneuve watch

A documentary written and directed by Catherine Deneuve. (in French)

Produced by Grand Lange and KTO / Good projection

Dialectics of Silence for a Time of Crisis: Rethinking the Visionary Insights of Michel Serres and Simone Weil

Marjolein Oele read

This paper examines the figure of silence in the works of Michel Serres and Simone Weil. It argues that, in the spirit of Serres and Weil, our time of crisis calls not for a short-term response, but for long-term engagement in a dialectics of silence: the dialogical movement between the silencing of institutions and the attentive silence of visionary insights. Such dialectics can revalidate the value of institutional silencing if based on solid rational proof (rebutting so-called visionary ideas that are baseless) while simultaneously showing the value of visionary ideas that rightfully combat problematic institutional silencing. Especially in this current moment, in which science and scientific propositions are relentlessly questioned, there is a need to lean into silence so as to promote a productive dialogue that regains trust in proven scientific ideas and institutions while allowing visionary insights their place as well, provided that we are willing to test them.

About the author

Marjolein Oele is a professor of philosophy at the University of San Francisco and was trained as an MD at the Free University of Amsterdam. She has a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Amsterdam and received her PhD in philosophy in 2007 from Loyola University Chicago

Simone Weil on Colonialism: An Ethic of the Other

J.P. Little, ed. & trans. read

In 1931, Simone Weil read an article by Louis Roubaud in the Petit Parisien that exposed the Yen Bay massacre in Indochina. That article opened Weil’s eyes, and from then until her death in exile in 1943, she cared most deeply about the French colonial situation. Weil refused to accept the contradiction between the image of France as a champion of the rights of man and the reality of France’s exploitation and oppression of the peoples in its territories.
Weil wrote thirteen articles or letters about the situation, writings originally published in French journals or in French collections of her work. J. P. Little’s fluid and clear translations finally introduce to English-speaking scholars and students this important element of Weil’s political consciousness.

J.P. Little, ed. & trans., New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003

J. P. Little, one of the world’s most respected scholars of Simone Weil, is the author of Simone Weil: Waiting on Truth and numerous articles and conference presentations on Weil’s life and work. She is lecturer in French (emerita) at St. Patrick’s College, Dublin.

Black Sun: A Letter to a Brother

Valery Panyushkin watch

From Valery Panyushkin, a Russian writer, posted on YouTub. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking, and I very much regret that so little of its power comes through without the rhyme and meter of the language.

Still, here is a highly imperfect translation (adapted from one by Arik Kruglyak). Even if it doesn’t work for you, please forward the YouTube link to any Russian speakers you know; I hope they were as affected by it as I was. — Eugene Volokh 

“Simone Weil and The Indian Religious Tradition”

Norman Hendricks read

This work explicates and analyzes the writings of Simone Weil and their relation to Indian religious tradition. Initially, it examines the extent and nature of her interest in India. It then outlines exactly what she said about Indian religious writings, in particular, the Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads. The bulk of the study analyzes these interpretations as well as her total religious vision in relation to Indian spirituality.

Ph.D. Dissertation, McMaster University (Dec. 1971)