Simone Weil: Basic Writings

Pages: 387

Soft cover

Publisher: Routledge

English

Simone Weil is one of the most profound and thought-provoking thinkers of the twentieth century. A teacher, factory and farm labourer, a political activist at home and abroad, a loving friend, daughter and sister―all these manifest a life devoted to the good in its many forms. Her writings explore the good open to us and the various routes to it, spanning philosophy, politics, science, and spirituality. While she saw her vocation primarily as a philosopher―examining questions concerning human faculties, action and thought, the limits of language and our need of mediation, suffering and beauty for contact with reality―her startingly original thought is often obscured by her having been too readily categorized as a Christian mystic. Simone Basic Writings is an expertly edited anthology of Weil’s most important writings, presenting her philosophy as it relates to the architecture of human nature, politics, work, necessity, beauty, goodness and God. Working from the definitive French edition of Weil’s complete writings, D. K. Levy and Marina Barabas have translated the essays anew or for the first time, adding important notes and references absent from existing English language editions of Weil’s work. Following an extensive introduction that gives an overview of Weil's life and thought, each section opens with a short introduction situating the selected essays within Weil’s oeuvre. Simone Basic Writings provides an excellent entry point for Weil’s philosophy, as well as a reference for students and scholars of Weil’s thought in philosophy and related disciplines.