Suffering

The Actor & Scholar in Conversation: Simona Giurgea and E. Jane Doering on Simone Weil

Lewes Public Library event read

Simone Weil’s “The Iliad or the Poem of Force” is a profound exploration of the power of force and the hubris of mankind in attempting to control it to our advantage. Force is inherently destructive, and we risk it overwhelming us when we unleash it upon ourselves. This two-part essay, published in the Cahiers du Sud in 1940 – 41, is every bit as relevant today in all human interactions, from the interpersonal to the geopolitical.

Join us for a discussion of this piece by Professor Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame and renowned Weil scholar Dr. E. Jane Doering and Simona Girugea, Senior Lecturer in of the University Theatre at Colgate University, who adapted this writing into a compelling one-woman dramatization (performed at the library on Friday, October 15). Hosted by Ron Collins, Senior Editor of ATTENTION. The discussion will probe this compelling essay in depth. The conversation will be followed by a reception sponsored ATTENTION.

E. Jane Doering is professor emerita of the College of Arts and Letters at Notre Dame University. She received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 19th and 20th-century French literature and culture. She also holds a Masters of Education from Goucher College and an M.A. in French Literature from the University of Notre Dame, along with a Diplôme d’études from La Sorbonne, Paris. She received the Notre Dame Kaneb Teaching Award for excellence in teaching. Her books include When Fiction and Philosophy Meet: A Conversation with Flannery O’Connor and Simone Weil (2019), Simone Weil and the Specter of Self-perpetuating Force (2010), and The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil (2014). She has authored over three dozen articles in English, French, and Italian on the multi-dimensional thought of Simone Weil, and delivered numerous talks in the USA, Canada, France, Italy, and Israel. Her professional responsibilities include being a longstanding member in an advisory capacity of the American Weil Society and of the international Association pour l’étude de la pensée de Simone Weil. She is also on the board of advisors of ATTENTION.

Lewes Public Library, October 16, 2021

NOTE: this session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER and indicate which you prefer.

Affliction in Simone Weil’s Thought

Mostafa Mousavi Azam, Zahra Qasemzade & Ehsan Momtahan read

The world has always been subject to a destructive evil, and every human being has experienced suffering in some way in his/her life. Therefore, if we do not look at evil with the connivance, we can find that the study of human suffering can constitute a part of the human’s answers about evil. By propounding affliction, Simon Weil not only tries to answer some questions about evil, but also introduces the human to his other dimensions through affliction, as she introduces it as a step towards self-knowledge. For the self-alienated human of the modern world, the answer to causes of affliction is a liberating gift due to his return to his true self, because what truly liberates the human is the understanding of truth, and affliction helps him to achieve it. Therefore, in this article, the issue of affliction in the thought of this French scholar is examined in a descriptive-analytical manner by referring to Simone Weil’s main works and those of her commentators.

Philosophy of Religion, vol. 18, no. 2 (Summer 2021), pp. 175-200.