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- Literature at the service of truth: Simone Weil and
'L’Enracinement'
Authors: E. Jane Doering
Pages: 11 - 33
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to elaborate the many literary allusions that Simone Weil used in her ultimate work: L' Enracinement, translated as The Need for Roots, to achieve her goal of encouraging her fellow countrymen to create a new postwar society. Understanding how she used the riches of the French and Western Literary Cannon, less easily grasped by those not educated in the French Education system, enriches the understanding of Weil's purpose and skill in writing on many levels, simultaneously for different target audiences. Underlying her stress on the need for truth and honesty about a county's past and present, with discernable respect for every person, is her foundational belief in the spiritual destiny of every human being. Examining her literary allusions in detail to show her clever subversion of traditionally accepted interpretations brings a new dimension to Simone Weil studies, while underlining the relevance of this essay to contemporary dilemmas.
PubDate: 2023-09-23
DOI: 10.25180/lj.v25i1.317
Issue No: Vol. 25, No. 1 (2023)
- Action, transcendance, incarnation. Pour une lecture unifiée de la
pensée politique de S. Weil
Authors: Emmanuel Gabellieri
Pages: 34 - 55
Abstract: In contrast to the readings that oppose a first 'revolutionary' Simone Weil to a second 'conservative' Simone Weil, this article supports the thesis of a profound continuity and coherence in Weil's political thought, parallel to the overall unity of her philosophy. Just as there is no opposition between her political thought of the early and the late 1930s, there is no opposition between her 'mystical' philosophy from the period in Marseille and her "political" philosophy from the period in London. However, this does not abolish the distance that must be maintained between religion, mysticism and politics, because the "synthesis" of these levels is not historical-political, but eschatological. Ultimately, we show that Weilian thought supports both the dual necessity and the mutual insufficiency of mysticism and politics, which enables it to escape both totalitarian idolatry and the mysticism of a pure afterlife. If she ignores the opposition so common in modern thought between "Amor Dei" and "Amor Mundi", it is because she wishes to comply with the dual Platonic and Christian injunction to bring the Good down into necessity without confusing both, thus making political action the criterion of truth of political thought.
PubDate: 2023-09-23
DOI: 10.25180/lj.v25i1.319
Issue No: Vol. 25, No. 1 (2023)
- Simone Weils frühes Verständnis des Totalitarismus als
existenzielle Bedrohung
Authors: Ulrich Arnswald
Pages: 56 - 108
Abstract: Coming from anarchist circles and revolutionary-syndicalist trade unions, Simone Weil initially saw herself as a Marxist and an anarchist, before increasingly becoming their early and extremely pointed critic. From 1933 on, she distanced herself more and more from the syndicalist movement in terms of content, and at the same time she was increasingly skeptical of its politics. She saw in the syndicalists, socialists, and communists no more accurate knowledge of society than in the conservatives or fascists. Moreover, she came to realize that they did not have the necessary means of action to carry out a revolution. In the assertion of the "historical mission of the working class," she saw a phrase that served the functionaries but only further humiliated and betrayed the working class. In this respect, even Marxism was for Weil still the intellectual expression of the bourgeoisie, because even a change in property relations would not have eliminated the oppression of the working class. Until the end of her life, she held that instead a radical change in labor relations was necessary to end the oppression of the working class and its social misery. The article attempts to situate Simone Weil's early disillusionment with syndicalism, socialism, Marxism and Stalinism, as well as her recognition of what was widely labelled totalitarianism in Western societies at the latest after the Second World War, in her writings.
PubDate: 2023-09-23
DOI: 10.25180/lj.v25i1.318
Issue No: Vol. 25, No. 1 (2023)
- On the Utopia of The End of Alienation. Hannah Arendt (Mis)reading Simone
Weil ̶ and Karl Marx
Authors: Vicky Iakovou
Pages: 109 - 135
Abstract: The starting point of this paper is Hannah Arendt's positive comment on Simone Weil's La condition ouvrière, in The Human Condition. I first offer a brief reconstruction of Arendt's interpretation of Marx's analysis of labor which is the context in which the above-mentioned comment appears. This interpretation is based, I claim, on a (mis)reading which consists in a rather systematic blurring of the distinction between labor as a universal and irreducible human activity and labor in its historically determined capitalist form, which is the object of Marx's critique, i.e., alienated labor. Following that, I discuss Weil's construal of labor and I shed light on its affinities with the Marxian problematic. My aim is to show that Arendt's comment does not do justice to the problems that Weil addresses both with and beyond Marx.
PubDate: 2023-09-23
DOI: 10.25180/lj.v25i1.320
Issue No: Vol. 25, No. 1 (2023)
- Simone Weil and the dangerous Myths of Science and Technology
Authors: Marta Nunes da Costa
Pages: 136 - 156
Abstract: In this article I aim to clarify the role of science and technology in Weil's account of the formation and maintenance of the bureaucratic state as a totalitarian form of State, which allows to identify the similarities between capitalist, fascist and communist regimes. In the first section I characterize Weil's conception of modernity. Having The Need for Roots as my main reference, first, I reconstruct Weil's conceptualization of human nature, after I explore the meanings and signs of uprootedness and Weil's critique of Marxism. In the second section, I analyze the relationship between Revolution, Totalitarianism and the invention of the bureaucratic State. I retake Weil's critique of Marx and the Marxists arguing that science and technology must be subjected to a new criticism today, for they have been reduced to mere means of a totalitarian logic, which ultimately reinforces social oppression. I conclude by rescuing Weil's defense of the fundamental value of individual freedom and of thought, for our humanity lies in it.
PubDate: 2023-09-23
DOI: 10.25180/lj.v25i1.322
Issue No: Vol. 25, No. 1 (2023)
- Like a Fly against a Pane of Glass: Simone Weil in the Context of
Contemporary Theories of Suffering
Authors: Eva-Maria Düringer
Pages: 157 - 175
Abstract: The last five years have seen a welcome rise in philosophical research on suffering. In this paper I will introduce the main new proposals and point out their respective weak-nesses. All accounts focus on an important aspect of suffering, but each one is too nar-row. I will sketch an account of suffering as being forced to endure the unendurable, based on Simone Weil's writings. I will argue that not only does this account manage to encompass the important aspects of suffering emphasised by current research, but that it much more plausibly brings out the ethical dangers, such as seeking consolations in fabricated narratives of meaning, and the value of suffering, such as enabling the mind to make unfiltered contact with reality.
PubDate: 2023-09-23
Issue No: Vol. 25, No. 1 (2023)
- Une tout autre forme d’authenticité. Travail du désir et anthropologie
de la médiation chez Simone Weil
Authors: Francesca Simeoni
Pages: 176 - 204
Abstract: The aim of this article is to examine the actuality of Simone Weil's concept of the impersonal, as expressed in La personne et le sacré. To this end, I address the theme of authenticity by proposing two alternative models. According to the first model, "being oneself" corresponds to the immediate self-expression. Weil's critique of the "person's right to self-fulfillment", on the other hand, gives rise to an anthropology of mediation, which constitutes a second model centered on the notion of work. Hence, my original contribution consists in the argumentation of the thesis that in Weil's oeuvre the access to the self is structured in concordance to a "work of desire", which constitutes the human being's essence. Taking up the various allusions to the "desire for the good", scattered throughout the Weilian corpus, the article unveils what this affective work, that transforms the subject, consists of, and emphasizes the importance of the experience of the transcendent Good as a condition for a free interpretation of the value of the desired goods.
PubDate: 2023-09-23
DOI: 10.25180/lj.v25i1.324
Issue No: Vol. 25, No. 1 (2023)
- L'ennui ouvrier dans la pensée de Simone Weil. Cohérence du matériel et
du spirituel
Authors: Judith Bordes
Pages: 205 - 227
Abstract: This paper focuses on one aspect of Weil's philosophy of labor, which has not been studied until now: the problem of boredom. In a 1938 article, she defines boredom as the main source of suffering for factory-workers. But shouldn't boredom rather occur during leisure-time, when one has nothing to do' In fact, factory work can lead to boredom, despite its frenetic rhythm and the deep concentration it implies. According Weil, boredom in factory has two main causes: monotony, and the fact that, while working, the workers lose the control over their own time. This correlation of boredom with certain conditions of work is nowadays still relevant, and it concerns modern life not only in the working sphere. It implies a critical approach to the conditions of production in the capitalist era. But it also helps to describe the paradoxical state in which, while being active, one suffers from weariness. At last, it shows the relevance of an exploration of the various aspects of modern alienation through the problematic of time. The interest in the problem of boredom therefore allows to explore two complementary sides of Weil's thought: materialism and religious inspiration.
PubDate: 2023-09-23
DOI: 10.25180/lj.v25i1.325
Issue No: Vol. 25, No. 1 (2023)
- Thoughtful Labor. Simone Weil on Vocational Education
Authors: Anouk Zuurmond
Pages: 228 - 247
Abstract: The work of Simone Weil is increasingly important in the field of philosophy of education, however, her ideas on schooling have been largely understood from her later, religiously inspired works. This paper argues that this approach does not do justice to the fact that Weil's thinking about education is already present in her earlier works and that her educational ideas were profoundly inspired by her experience as a factory worker. One of the key insights Weil gained whilst working in a factory was the importance of what she refers to as "thoughtful labor". This paper addresses this concept by engaging with the earlier work of Weil on educational philosophy. Furthermore, these ideas are juxtaposed with a German tradition in pedagogical thinking, emerging around the same time, on the notion of Berufsbildung, which indicates a combination of professional, personal and societal formation in vocational training. I argue that Weil shares with this tradition the crucial idea that work can have an educational value, and that it should be integrated into the educational system. However, the tradition of Berufsbildung has been critiqued for its strong tendency to consolidate existing power structures; I suggest that this critique is still valid on current discourses on general formation and Bildung in vocational education. In the final part of this article, I argue that on this point the work of Simone Weil differs from the notion of Berufsbildung, as she stands in a tradition of educational thinkers who remind us of the potential revolutionary character of education.
PubDate: 2023-09-23
Issue No: Vol. 25, No. 1 (2023)
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