Simone Weil

Not to be confused with Simone Veil, a French politician.

Simone Weil
Born
Simone Adolphine Weil

3 February 1909
Paris, France
Died24 August 1943(1943-08-24) (aged 34)
Ashford, Kent, England, United Kingdom
NationalityFrench
EducationÉcole Normale Supérieure, University of Paris[10] (B.A., M.A.)
Era20th-century philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolContinental philosophy
Marxism (early)
Christian anarchism[1]
Christian socialism[2] (late)
Christian Mysticism
Individualism[3]
Modern Platonism[4]
Main interests
Political philosophy, moral philosophy,[5] philosophy of religion, philosophy of science
Notable ideas
Decreation (renouncing the gift of free will as a form of acceptance of everything that is independent of one's particular desires;[6] making "something created pass into the uncreated"),[7] uprootedness (déracinement), patriotism of compassion,[8] abolition of political parties, the unjust character of affliction (malheur), compassion must act in the area of metaxy[9]

Simone Adolphine Weil (/ˈveɪ/ VAY;[11] French: [simɔn adɔlfin vɛj]; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Since 1995, more than 5,000 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work.[12]

After her graduation from formal education, Weil became a teacher. She taught intermittently throughout the 1930s, taking several breaks because of poor health and in order to devote herself to political activism. Such work saw her assisting in the trade union movement, taking the side of the anarchists known as the Durruti Column in the Spanish Civil War, and spending more than a year working as a labourer, mostly in car factories, so that she could better understand the working class.

Weil became increasingly religious and inclined towards mysticism as her life progressed.[13] She wrote throughout her life, although most of her writings did not attract much attention until after her death. In the 1950s and '60s, her work became famous in continental Europe and throughout the English-speaking world. Her thought has continued to be the subject of extensive scholarship across a wide range of fields.[14]

The mathematician André Weil was her brother.[15][16]

  1. ^ « Avec Simone Weil et George Orwell », Le Comptoir
  2. ^ George Andrew Panichas. (1999) Growing wings to overcome gravity. Mercer University Press. p. 63.
  3. ^ Thomas R. Nevin. (1991) Simone Weil: Portrait of a Self-exiled Jew. The University of North Carolina Press. p. 198.
  4. ^ Doering, E. Jane, and Eric O. Springsted, eds. (2004) The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil. University of Notre Dame Press. p. 29.
  5. ^ "Course Catalogue - The Philosophy of Simone Weil (PHIL10161)". Drps.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  6. ^ Primary source: Simone Weil, First and Last Notebooks, Oxford University Press, 1970, pp. 211, 213 and 217. Commentary on the primary source: Richard H. Bell, Simone Weil's Philosophy of Culture: Readings Toward a Divine Humanity, Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 27.
  7. ^ Simone Weil, 2004, Gravity and Grace, London: Routledge. p. 32
  8. ^ Dietz, Mary. (1988). Between the Human and the Divine: The Political Thought of Simone Weil. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 188.
  9. ^ Athanasios Moulakis, Simone Weil and the Politics of Self-denial, University of Missouri Press, 1998, p. 141.
  10. ^ At the time, the ENS was part of the University of Paris according to the decree of 10 November 1903.
  11. ^ "Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  12. ^ "Home". Simone Weil Bibliography. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  13. ^ Sheldrake, Philip (2007). A Brief History of Spirituality. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 180–182. ISBN 978-1-4051-1770-8.
  14. ^ Especially philosophy and theology—also political and social science, feminism, science, education, and classical studies.
  15. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Simone Weil", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  16. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Weil family", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews