Amazon.com
Simone Weil is an outsider's saint. The daughter of an agnostic French family of Jewish descent, Weil was never baptized ("God does not want me in the Church," she wrote), and her conversion to Christianity at the age of 23 took her by surprise. Until then, she had been a solemn, committed leftist intellectual. Now she was moving toward a life of divine encounters whose desolate ecstasy, as described by the journals, letters, and essays excerpted in Waiting for God, bear comparison to St. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. As Leslie Fiedler writes in her introduction to Weil's book, "She speaks of the problems of belief in the vocabulary of the unbeliever, of the doctrines of the Church in the words of the unchurched." The book is most notable for Weil's lengthy letter titled "Spiritual Autobiography" and for her "Meditation on the Pater Noster," which is the discursive record of a spiritual process that led to her almost daily attainment of a mystical vision of God. This is not pretty writing; it is an agonized record of amazement. --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
Emerging from thought-provoking discussions and correspondence Simone Weil had with the Reverend Father Perrin, this classic collection of essays contains her most profound meditations on the relationship of human life to the realm of the transcendant. An enlightening introduction by Leslie Fiedler examines Weil's extraordinary roles as a philosophy teacher turned mystic. "One of the most neglected resources of our century ", Waiting for God will continue to influence spiritual and political thought for centuries to come.
Customer Reviews:
Life changing.......2007-04-13
I guess when one is ready for certain changes in one's life God leads us to those things that will best facilitate that change. Simone Weil has been a catalyst for a major change in my life. Her writings have struck a responsive chord in my life. Although some of her writings are difficult for me to understand, the underlying message is powerful. I found myself relating to her desire to discover the love of God in her life. I appreciated her soul searching honesty is wanting that encounter to be completely without deception, pretense or even pride. She so wanted to guard against a false religious experience, or siimply a social religious experience. Her descriptions of what it is to truly love another are profound. Her life is a journey that I want to follow. I looked up the meaning of her name in the dictionary. It means "one who hears." Certainly, she is one who sought to hear the voice of God. I, too, want to hear the voice of God without deception or pride. I honor Simone as a true religious teacher for me.
a bit unorthodox, to say the least.......2006-02-10
I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't this. I was hoping to give this book to my brother-in-law, someone with a Catholic upbringing but a Marxist philosophy now- a bit of the reverse of Simone Weil. The theology in this book is so individual, however, as to make me uncertain that it could even be called Christian. In any case, I'm not sure it's a life-path that would inspire any other than a very select group. Because it is different, and because there probably are some people that it might speak to I give it 2 stars, but it wasn't for me.
by a modern saint.......2005-05-10
Simone Weil (1909-1943) was a remarkable saint of the modern era. After being raised in a Jewish middle class family and graduating from the finest schools, she went to work in the inner city as a blue-collar factory worker. She once complained to the supervisor about a coal drill: "This drill was designed to break rocks. It was not designed for human hands" while illustrating the vibrating effects with her arms. She reportedly debated Trotsky on the living conditions of the proletariat into the ground.
Weil died of physical and mental exhaustion at age 34 after an arduous life of fasting, writing, and working in solidarity with the most downtrodden of society. Besides her amazing solidarity with the working class, it is Weil's profound writings that have established her legacy. Contemporary Albert Camus called her "the only great spirit of our time." T.S. Eliot wrote in his forward to one of her books: "We must expose ourselves to the personality of a woman of genius, of a kind of genius akin to that of a saint." In his essay titled, "The Importance of Simone Weil," Czeslaw Milosz wrote, "France offered a rare gift to the contemporary world in the person of Simone Weil." Waiting for God (Harper Perennial, 2001) is the best introduction to her spiritual writings, and what follows are some highlights from that work.
The first few chapters consist of letters she wrote to her friend, Father Perrin. Though one gets a better sense of how she felt and struggled daily living out her ideas, it is her four essays in the latter half of the book that show the most profundity and coherence of thought. Every page, nearly every paragraph has such significance, one cannot finish reading an essay without being ravished through the direction of one who knew the spiritual life as deeply as she did.
When I first read the essay "Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God," I was having trouble picking up a case to read for law school. It seemed pointless especially since I had already decided to become a pastor rather than an attorney. But Weil showed me that "the key to a Christian conception of studies is the realization that prayer consists of attention." (p.58). She states, "Students must therefore work without any wish to gain good marks, to pass examinations, to win school successes; without any reference to their natural abilities and tastes; applying themselves equally to all their tasks, with the idea that each one will help form in them the habit of that attention which is the substance of prayer." (p.59) This explains why Weil mastered several languages including Sanskrit and a wide range of academic subjects: they helped her to pray more effectively. She exhorts, "Whoever goes through years of study without developing this attention within himself has lost a great treasure." (p.64)
In another application, Weil insightfully states that studying also helps one love his neighbor. She explains, "Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention." (p.64) Hence studying helps enable the soul to "[empty] itself of all its contents in order to receive into itself the being it is looking at, just as he is, in all his truth." (p.65) The immeasurable help that studying can bring to others is captured in this thought: "The capacity to give one's attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle." (p.64)
In the next essay "The Love of God and Affliction," Weil writes:
"The great enigma of human life is not suffering but affliction. It is not surprising that the innocent are killed, tortured, driven from their country, made destitute . . .since there are criminals to perform such actions. It is not surprising either that disease is the cause of long sufferings, which paralyze life and make it into an image of death, since nature is at the mercy of the blind play of mechanical necessities. But it is surprising that God should have given affliction the power to seize the very souls of the innocent and to take possession of them as their sovereign lord. At the very best, he who is branded by affliction will keep only half his soul." (p.69)
Weil defines affliction as the experience of "physical pain, distress of soul, and social degradation, all at the same time." (p.81) She analogizes it to a nail that God uses to pierce the center of one's soul, to leave the person as it were crucified, where he or she can experience God most intimately as Job and Christ did in view of God's apparent absence.
But Weil warns that amidst affliction, if one does not strain to hear an absent God in silence, or feel the beauty of God in the world's absolute obedience to Him, then the person remains like a slave with half a soul. For "sin is not a distance," according to Weil, "it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction." (p.73) In other words, losing hope is a greater sin than acknowledging one's feelings of abandonment by God. She elaborates that just as two strangers may be near but not together and two friends may be apart but still near, "God can never be perfectly present to us here below on account of our flesh. But he can be almost perfectly absent from us in extreme affliction. . . . That is why the Cross is our only hope." (p.75)
In her essay "Forms of the Implicit Love of God," Weil comments on four loves: of neighbor, the order of the world, religious practices, and friendship. Regarding love for our neighbor, she profoundly states, "The Gospel makes no distinction between the love of our neighbor and justice." (p.85) She explains that "the supernatural virtue of justice consists of behaving exactly as though there were equality when one is the stronger in an unequal relationship." (p.85) Thus a believer cannot show love to his poor neighbor if he assumes that he is reaching down or doing the impoverished person a favor.
Instead a believer must seek to reaffirm the dignity of this person made in God's image before seeking to help him. (p.88) Weil comments that "[i]t is not surprising that a man who has bread should give a piece to someone who is starving. What is surprising is that he should be capable of doing so with so different a gesture from that with which we buy an object. Almsgiving when it is not supernatural is like a sort of purchase. It buys the sufferer." (p.91) The beauty of the inseparability of justice and love is that it creates solidarity between rich and poor, and allows the coexistence of generosity and respect. In this way of "creative attention" we become God-like. Weil elaborates:
"God alone has this power, the power really to think into being that which does not exist. Only God, present in us, can really think the human quality into the victims of affliction, can really look at them with a look differing from that we give to things, can listen to their voice as we listen to spoken words. Then they become aware that they have a voice, otherwise they would not have occasion to notice it. . . . God is present at the point where the eyes of those who give and those who receive meet." (p.93-4)
Regarding love of the order of the world, Weil writes, "[T]he soul's natural inclination to love beauty is the trap God most frequently uses in order to win it and open it to the breath from on high." (p.103). She describes the beauty of the world as "Christ's tender smile for us coming through matter." (p.104) Weil however laments that too many treat the dim reflections of God's beauty on earth as the final and only reality (as manifested in luxury, art, science). (p.106-8) This locating the absolute in pleasure is the "crime of idolatry." (p.111)
On the love of religious practices, the thought most associated with Weil's contribution to spirituality is that "one of the principal truths of Christianity, a truth that goes almost unrecognized today, is that looking is what saves us." (p.125) She offers the illustration: "The bronze serpent was lifted up so that those who lay maimed in the depths of degradation should be saved by looking upon it." (p.125) Weil is adamant that "the will cannot produce any good in the soul." (p.126) She writes:
"That we have to strive after goodness with an effort of our will is one of the lies invented by the mediocre part of ourselves in its fear of being destroyed. Such an effort does not threaten it in any way . . . not even when it entails a great deal of fatigue and suffering. For the mediocre part of ourselves is not afraid of fatigue and suffering; it is afraid of being killed." (p.127)
To the contrary, Weil emphasizes that "the effort that brings a soul to salvation is like the effort of looking or of listening; it is the kind of effort by which a fiancée accepts her lover. It is an act of attention and consent." (p.126) In other words, "[t]he crucifixion of Christ is the model of all acts of obedience." (p.126) Thus, Weil exhorts, "it is at those moments when we are, as we say, in a bad mood, when we feel incapable of the elevation of soul that befits holy things, it is then that it is most effectual to turn our eyes toward perfect purity. For it is then that evil, or rather mediocrity, comes to the surface of the soul and is in the best position for being burned by contact with the fire." (p.125)
She distinguishes between morality, which depends on the will, and religion, which consists of desire, and concludes, "It is desire that saves" and again "to long for God and to renounce all the rest, that alone can save us." (p.127-8) Acknowledging the counterintuitive nature of true sanctification that is contrary to the commonly held view of it being a matter of sheer strenuous will power, Weil nevertheless exclaims: "There is an easiness in salvation which is more difficult to us than all our efforts" and "this waiting for goodness and truth is . . . something more intense than any searching." (p.127-8) She perceptively observes that "the notion of grace, as opposed to virtue depending on the will, and that of inspiration, as opposed to intellectual or artistic work, these two notions, if they are well understood, show the efficacy of desire and waiting." (p.129)
Weil's comments on friendship are brief, so I will be brief. She defines it as "a supernatural harmony, a union of opposites." (p.132) She explains, "In all human things, necessity is the principle of impurity. All friendship is impure if even a trace of the wish to please or the contrary desire to dominate is found in it." (p.135) Thus "in a perfect friendship . . .the two friends have fully consented to be two and not one, they respect the distance which the fact of being two distinct creatures places between them. Man has the right to desire direct union with God alone." (p.135)
She concludes her essay on the four loves with a few more precious insights only one of which I'll mention. She encourages people to cherish the certainty of one's hunger for God as invaluable even if one is uncertain of His presence. For the greatest argument for the existence of God, as with bread or water, is hunger and thirst. (p.138)
In her essay "Concerning the Our Father," Weil explicates the Lord's Prayer sentence by sentence. His prayer had special meaning for her because through it, she once wrote in her diary, Christ daily "descended and took her." I leave it to the reader to discover its riches.
the Gospel message loved and lived!.......2003-07-17
Everything that Simone Weil teaches is taught in the Christian gospels. If you think the Gospel message goes to extremes, is too precious in its tenderness, too self-sacrificing, too far over on the side of the poor, the imprisoned, and the broken-hearted, then you will surely think the same of Simone's life and writing. If you know, follow, and love the beatitudes, if you understand the way of the cross, the vision of the saints, you will treasure every chapter of WAITING FOR GOD. It is the best of Weil's books, and therefore the best place to begin reading her essays -- even among the writings of the saints, this book is unique in its overwhelming love and faithfulness to the Gospel teaching of unconditional love.
WAITING FOR GOD.......2003-03-06
I first tried to read this book decades ago, but could not get far with it. Then I read Iris Murdoch's, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, in which IM refers to Simone Weil and her philosophy. That took me back to SW, and now I find myself re-reading parts several times. For example, read what she says about carnal love and its several levels, from the purest to debauchery. Simone Weil answers the question that so many ask: Why do we? Simone Weil has one of the most penetrating minds one can meet, and her writings are a result.
Book Description
War and the Iliad is a perfect introduction to the range of Homer's art as well as a provocative and rewarding demonstration of the links between literature, philosophy, and questions of life and death.
Simone Weil's The Iliad, or the Poem of Force is one of her most celebrated works--an inspired analysis of Homer's epic that presents a nightmare vision of combat as a machine in which all humanity is lost. First published on the eve of war in 1939, the essay has often been read as a pacifist manifesto. Rachel Bespaloff was a French contemporary of Weil's whose work similarly explored the complex relations between literature, religion, and philosophy. She composed her own distinctive discussion of the Iliad in the midst of World War II--calling it "her method of facing the war"--and, as Christopher Benfey argues in his introduction, the essay was very probably written in response to Weil. Bespaloff's account of the Iliad brings out Homer's novelistic approach to character and the existential drama of his characters' choices; it is marked, too, by a tragic awareness of how the Iliad speaks to times and places where there is no hope apart from war.
This edition brings together these two influential essays for the first time, accompanied by Benfey's scholarly introduction and an afterword by the great Austrian novelist Hermann Broch.
Customer Reviews:
The Hedgehog and the Fox.......2007-04-14
Mary McCarthy translated both of these great essays on the ILIAD written during the Occupation by two of France's leading intellectuals with the intention of publishing them both together, but entanglements with the estate of Simone Weil made this impossible until now. The great Greek literary works about warfare and civilization were much on the minds of French intellectuals during World War II, and these two essays are among the most remarkable fruits of that thematic obsession.
Homer's literary inheritor, the seventh-century BCE poet Archilochus, wrote, "The fox knows many tricks, the hedgehog only one, but it is a good one." The great twentieth-century philosopher Isaiah Berlin thus grouped the preeminent figures of Western culture into the categories of "foxes" and "hedgehogs." In her essay here, Weil shows herself to be a hedgehog, pursuing one theme relentlessly and obsessively but exceptionally persuasively. In pursuit of her argument that the ILIAD is a poem about force she herself reenacts such violence upon the characters, stripping the characters of their names (such that Andromache becomes "the wife," Priam "the suppliant") in order to make her point that they are de-humanized by the processes of war. Even with this in mind, hopwever, it would be hard to think of a more encompassing or poignant reading of the poem, though Rachel Bespaloff, who apparently read Weil's piece while writing her own study of the ILIAD and altered her argument to accommodate Weil's, may well out-do her. Bespaloff is intellectually a fox, pursuing many ideas and themes with real grace and with Weil's very historically and culturally broad sense of scope; her argument is absolutely remarkable, and shows that, like Weil, she has a strong command of the poem's ethical problems as well as of its richness. As icing on the cake, NYRB also appends the novelist Hermann Broch's own fine essay on Bespaloff's piece. Anyone who has read the ILIAD carefully will find much meat here, even sixty years after the original essays were written.
Historic Rescue from the Sands of Time.......2005-03-26
Besides being thankful to the New York Review of Books for publishing some of the most intelligent and expansive literary criticism around, we can now be grateful for one more gift from the series of New York Review Classics. This one, two essays ostensibly on the Iliad by Simone Weil and Rachel Bespaloff, attains the very special pantheon of a glorious literary event.
Both pieces were written by women who were Jewish intellectuals forced to flee France on the cusp of the Second World War and were composed in that climate of national upheaval. In writing about the greatest war epic in Western literature, they were able-each in her own way-to cast a reflection on her own time and the devasting changes that the threat of war was effecting. Needless to say, this creates an urgency and immediacy to their writing that goes beyond the literary. These are not aloof reflections on an ancient relic but the purest example of writing on life and death as a matter of life and death.
The publishing of the the pairing of these two pieces is an act of heroic recovery, the best example of why writing matters.
Average customer rating:
- Saintly Beauty
- A Book For The Ages
- An outstanding critique of modernity by the late Simone Weil
|
The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Toward Mankind
Simone Weil
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Psychology & Interactions
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Eliot, T. S.
| ( E )
| Authors, A-Z
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Weil, Simone
| ( W )
| Authors, A-Z
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Health Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0415119596 |
Book Description
Written while Simone Weil worked at the French Headquarters in London, The Need for Roots was published in 1949 posthumously under the title L'Enracinement. She had been commissioned by General de Gaulle, head of the Free French forces, to write a report on the duties and privileges of the French after the liberation. Weil became concerned by the idea of uprootedness; she wrote this study on the need for security. Her report called for her fellow French to recover their spiritual roots. An intensely spiritual person, Weil felt it an obligation to experience life as others had to, working on factories and on farms. She was to die of tuberculosis a year after being commissioned to write this book, having refused to eat more than the rations of those suffering Nazi occupation in France.
Customer Reviews:
Saintly Beauty.......2000-03-04
Simone Weil's "The Need For Roots" demonstrates the purest understanding of Christ's teaching that I have ever come across. One need not be religious to grasp or identify with this brilliant work.
This book is held together by Christ's beatitudes, parables and prayers as a way of emphasizing the need for spirituality, not organized religion, in our lives. Weil insists on vital obligations of the soul (all of which are explained in brief detail) and the importance of spirituality and self-respect in all things.
According to Weil, everything we do is to be approached with the same intense religiosity that pervaded ancient Greek culture. Love of money and glory have buried spirituality in modern societies world-wide. One of Weil's many solutions was to completely reexamine the uses of education in order to instill this spiritual understanding of human existence.
As with all great thinkers, there are countless facets of Weil's thought. The Need For Roots, therefore, is not an easy read. I found myself reading over sentences and paragraphs several times-not out of frustration, but out of an imense craving to fully understand the saintly beauty of her words.
Those who make the effort to read this book attentively will come away with a powerful, fresh perspective of life, including an understanding of the necessity of both joy and pain. Anyone with a soul should read this book.
A Book For The Ages.......2000-01-27
In "The Need For Roots," Simone Weil cultivates perhaps the purest, most spiritual definition of Christianity ever put into words. She despises group thought, i.e., organized religion, while constantly referencing the words of Jesus Christ as being the essence of Christianity and a crucial model for living a "well-rooted" life.
One need not be religious at all to identify with the type of religiosity expressed in this book. Simone Weil is no preacher. Going to church every Sunday does not impress her. Dropping money in the priest's basket does not impress her. Love, on the other hand, does. And not just love of God or of religion, but love of eveything we do in life. She stresses the need for love of truth, learning, physical labor and love for what she defines as "the good."
Religion, for Simone Weil, should not just be limited to the church. Simone Weil believes that every aspect of life, everything we do, such as the pursuit of science or knowledge, should be as religious an experience as it was for the ancient Greeks; a civilization she draws reference to many times throughout the book.
Her deep spirituality is strewn throughout these pages, and wakes up the mind to the hypocrissy, spiritual crisis, and moral "uprootedness" of human nature in the modern world. In the midst of stressing this deeply spiritual message, Simone Weil attempts to open the reader's eyes to newer, less narrow-minded definitions of patriotism and greatness, as well as noting the various fundamental uses of education. For Simone Weil, education is not just a kid going to school and trying to get a good grade. Education is for those who have a love of truth, a love of knowledge and an understanding of the importance those virtues carry. It is up to a well-rooted, healthy society to instill those virtues in each individual.
Like the works of most complicated thinkers, this is no easy read. There are many different ideas spiraling around the core of spiritualism emphasized in "The Need For Roots." Simone Weil is extremely intellectual. It is unthinkable that she attained this level of brilliance by the time of her premature death at the age of 33. Most people will find themselves reading over paragraphs several times before fully understanding them. In the introduction, T.S. Elliot suggests that one reading of the book is insufficient, and he may be correct. Anyone who thinks they have grasped this book fully after reading over it once is either lazy, or, if they are correct, a freak of nature. However, the hard work required to tap into Simone Weil's stream of thought is well worth it. This is truly one of the most inspiring and provocative books I have read. While it was written in 1943 and adressed specifically to the state of France under the Vichy government, much of this book still remains crucially relevant today, perhaps even more so.
If this book is read with discernment, rather than in the casual mode in which we often read, I guarantee that a permanent tatoo of Weil's deep passion for humanity will be left on the soul.
An outstanding critique of modernity by the late Simone Weil.......1997-06-07
Two major contributions to the analysis of the modern society can be found in Weil's works. In his "Essay on the causes of freedom and oppression" of the early 1930s she had given a vision of why we are left unsatisfied by progress, substituting social oppression for natural one.
Here, while in London just before dying, she gets to such a deep understanding of contemporary social and spiritual problems that has very few comparisons in this century. We needs roots, she assumes, and we find them belonging to alive communities feeding our souls. An entire programme of reform of modernity is developed from this assumption, and it is applied in detail to postwar perspectives in France. According to some of us, this is still a guidebook for understanding what can be done now, a source of inspiration for rethinking how modern societies could be eventually reconverted to serve human needs, instead of representing Plato's image (dear to Simone) of the apocalyptic Great Beast.
Book Description
Simone Weil (1909-1943) was a teacher, classical scholar, philosopher, political activist and seeker after truth. She confronted the rootlessness of modern life and the death of the spirit in an age of materialism. Her writing was visionary and her vision, radical. She wrote "The conditions of modern life destroy the mind-body equilibrium in everything, in thought and in action - in all actions: in work, in fighting...and in love, which is now a luxurious sensation and a game...In its aspect, the civilization we live in overwhelms the human body. Mind and body have become strangers to one another. Contact has been lost."
Born in France, a contemporary of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, Weil inspired T.S. Eliot to say of her, "We must simply expose ourselves to the personality of a woman of genius, of a kind of genius akin to that of a saint." Today, nearly sixty years after her death, her work has, perhaps, an even greater immediacy and relevance. This book is a collection of the best of her writings from The Notebooks of Simone Weil, Oppression and Liberty and Gravity and Grace.
Now presented in a beautifully re-designed edition, The Simone Weil Reader is a source of inspiration; it reflects a towering faith and the ultimate triumph of the spirit.
Customer Reviews:
Oscar and the maiden.......2000-04-20
An amazing collection of essays by one of the most brilliant philosopher/social critic/spiritual writer's of all time. Weil's writing can be extremely dense, I occassionally had to read sentences three or four times to understand what was going on. The problem is not really that her sentences are complicated, but rather that the ideas she is putting forth are, at times, heinously difficult to grasp. When you do finally get it though, Wow! I could alomost feel the wrinkles in my cerebellum changing course. Her analysis of human "rights", her thoughts "on personality", and her assessment of the spiritual aspects of the human soul are astounding. She has an uncanny ability to dismantle social power matrixes, lay them at your feet, and challenge you to re-evaluate your own interaction with them. As a fan of Greek literature I also recommend the essay "The Iliad, a Poem of Force" as one of the more lucid deconstructions of that work. This is a fine anthology which, due to it's chronological orginization and well-written introduction, also give fascinating insight into the growth and development of thought processes of a truly remarkable woman. All in all, this anthology is just extremely cool, though difficult to plow through, it is worth every moment.
Book Description
The remarkable French thinker Simone Weil is one of the leading intellectual and spiritual figures of the twentieth century. A legendary essayist, political philosopher and member of the French resistance, her literary output belied her tragically short life. Most of her work was published posthumously, to widespread acclaim. Always concerned with the nature of individual freedom, Weil explores inOppression and Liberty its political and social implications. Analysing the causes of oppression, its mechanisms and forms, she questions revolutionary responsesand presents a prophetic view of a way forward. If, as she noted elsewhere, 'the future is made of the same stuff as the present', then there will always be a need to continue to listen to Simone Weil. to listen to Simone Weil.
Book Description
Philosopher, theologian, critic, sociologist, political activist -- Simone Weil was among the foremost thinkers of our time. Best known in this country for her theological writing, Weil wrote on a great variety of subjects ranging from classical philosophy and poetry, to modern labor, to the language of political discourse. The present anthology offers a generous collection of her work, including essays never before translated into English and many that have long been out of print. It amply confirms Elizabeth Hardwick's words that Simone Weil was "one of the most brilliant and original minds of twentieth-century France" and "a woman of transcendent intellectual gifts and the widest learning." A longtime Weil scholar, Sian Miles has selected essays representative of the wide sweep of Weil's work and provides a superb introduction that places Weil's work in context of her life and times.
Customer Reviews:
A synopsis of Weil's thought.......2006-07-07
First a clarification: I am neither Christian nor particularly religious. Thus my opinions on Weil's writings are from a secular viewpoint. Moreover, like any truly great religious writing, Weil's writings should be read by everybody regardless of their religious affiliations, even if they are atheists.
This book contains a collection of essays by Weil and some excerpts from her book Gravity and Grace. To many people, Weil's writing style can be opaque and infuriating. I believe it was Auden who said that Weil does not attempt to persuade through her writing ---instead she uses her brilliant aphoristic style to make assertions. In their own way, her aphorisms and insights make her case far better than any reasoned argument.
The best essay in this collection is "The Iliad, or the Poem of Force". The key contention of the essay is that the main theme of Iliad is the degradation of humanity through the brute power of physical force. Achilles is the person through which the effect of physical force is manifested most clearly. Faced with the rage of Achilles, the Trojans are no more than timid subhuman beasts in front of a lion who slaughters them with no mercy. But the same awesome force degrades Achilles to a cruel beast ---by treating others inhmanely, he himself loses his human qualities of mercy and civilization until they are roused by the visit from Priam.
The other essays in the collection are good, but do not come close to the power of the essay on Iliad. Overall this book is a good introduction to the writings of Simone Weil. To the readers of this book, I would recommend "Gravity and Grace" which is the best of her books.
Average customer rating:
- From a young philosopher going to OSU...
|
Weaving the World: Simone Weil on Science, Mathematics, And Love
Vance G. Morgan
Manufacturer: University of Notre Dame Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Modern
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Theology
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Jesus of Nazareth
ASIN: 0268034877 |
Book Description
"Weaving the World is a well-written and lucid overview of Simone Weil's writings on science and mathematics. This book will be of great benefit for anyone who wishes to pursue Weil's thought in depth." —Eric O. Springsted, President of the American Weil Society
"Weaving the World is a detailed account of the philosophy of science and knowledge of Simone Weil. It is a very useful contribution to our understanding of one of the deepest and most incandescent thinkers of the twentieth century." —Martin Andic, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Weaving the World uses Simone Weil's philosophy of science and mathematics as an introduction to the thought of one of the most powerful philosophical and theological minds of the twentieth century. Weil held that, for the ancient Greeks, the ultimate purpose of science and mathematics was the knowledge and love of the divine. Her creative assimilation of this vision led her to a conception of science and mathematics that connects the human person with not only the physical world but also the spiritual and aesthetic aspects of human existence.
Vance G. Morgan investigates Weil's earliest texts on science, in which she lays the foundation for a conception of science rooted in basic human concerns and activities. He then tracks Weil's analysis of the development of science, particularly of the mathematics and science of the ancient Greeks. He especially explores Weil's interpretation of the Pythagoreans and their mathematical discoveries, giving special attention to the mathematical foundations of musical harmonies. Morgan pays particular attention to Weil's analysis of Greek geometry, which she believed reveals the importance of mediation between incommensurates in both geometry and the larger scope of human existence.
Morgan's study not only challenges the metaphysical and spiritual poverty of contemporary scientific paradigms, but also sketches an outline of an alternative metaphysical foundation for mathematics and science that, according to Weil, opens the door to a reinvigorated dialogue between science, philosophy, art, and religion.
Customer Reviews:
From a young philosopher going to OSU..........2005-12-23
I think Dr. Morgan's book "Weaving the World" is a tour-de-force of intellectualism and well worth reading. He deeply explores Simone Weil and her inspiring philosophy in a manner that is very thought-provoking for the reader. Kudos to the author on an incredible account of Weil and her thinking.
Book Description
Gravity and Grace was the first ever publication by the remarkable thinker and activist, Simone Weil. In it Gustave Thibon, the priest to whom she had entrusted her notebooks before her untimely death, compiled in one remarkable volume a compendium of her writings that have become a source of spiritual guidance and wisdom for countless individuals.
Customer Reviews:
Quintessence of a Spiritual Genius.......2007-03-01
GRAVITY AND GRACE by Simone Weil. With an Introduction by Gustave Thibon. Translated from the French by Emma Craufurd. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972 (1952) ISBN 071002262X.
'Gravity and Grace' is a slim book of (in my edition) just 160 pages which holds within itself the quintessence of the greatest spiritual genius of the 20th century. The book is a compilation of brief extracts from Simone Weil's Notebooks and was assembled by Gustav Thibon, who has also added a valuable Introduction of 30 pages, the purpose of which is simply to provide readers with some necessary background, for, as he points out, "Simone Weil's writings belong to the category of very great work which can only be weakened and spoilt by a commentary."
M.Thibon has organized these sayings into 38 chapters - Detachment, The Self, Illusions, Idolatry, Love, Evil, Violence, Contradiction, Chance, Beauty, The Great Beast, etc. (The original French edition - LA PESANTEUR ET LA GRACE (Paris: Plon, 1947) - contained an additional chapter on Israel (pp.216-221) which the English publishers, for reasons best known to themselves, have silently omitted from the 1952 English edition. Whether it has since been restored I don't know).
I purchased my own copy of this book (bibliographical details of which are given above) over thirty years ago. Although many hundreds if not thousands of books have passed through my hands since then, it remains one of five or six books I would never ever consider parting with. Simone Weil's thoughts are so truthful and of such power that one never forgets them and her book becomes one that you find yourself returning to again and again. Here are a few of those thoughts selected at random:
"We cannot under any circumstances manufacture something which is better than ourselves" (p.41).
"The only organ of contact with existence is acceptance, love" (p.57).
"Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvellous, intoxicating" (p.62).
"Joy is the overflowing consciousness of reality" (p.73).
'Gravity and Grace' brings us the truth about the human condition, the truth about ourselves, and much of this truth is far from comforting. As M. Thibon points out, "It is not a question of philosophy here but of life," the life that all of us are at this moment living and that Simone Weil can help us more fully appreciate and understand. Her thoughts weave themselves into the fabric of one's mind and will leave any sensitive reader immeasurably enriched.
A startlingly authentic spirituality that doesn't shy away from suffering.......2005-08-29
I admit that since I am a student of analytic philosophy the axiomatic format made it difficult to follow the author at times. It is just not the kind of writing to which I am accustom. If you like writtings which take a thoroughly explicit and systematic approach to religious questions this book is probably not for you. Still, I think it is impossible to read this book without being moved by the power the author's holiness. I found many of these sayings profoundly beautiful (I am especially enamored with the section on love) and some unsettling but always deeply moving. I believe this is one of those rare books which can change a person's life.
The struggles of a Russian Jew.......2000-10-02
This is a case of Dialectic Materialism approached through a Nietzsche perspective, a woman as an idealist scholar with an extraordinary Jewish background whose brother suffers the loss of his life at the hands of Nazis! Simone Petrement, Simone Weil's biographer and classmate [Ecole Normale et al], clearly presents the defeating struggles with which Ms. Weil must but stealthily reveal! To say she deplored her Jewish background would be to deny her devotion to her parents which could not completely be. Her struggle is not her with Jewism itself but with the affliction of her father, Dr. Bernard Weil (1872-1955) and her mother, the daughter of Mme. Reinherz. Try the perils of the afflicted Russian Jew who no longer finds palatable the mere potatoes which she herself chose. She subtly [quietly]pleaded for her parents' assistance and then rejected their offers through her inner anxiety, a struggle to preserve Humanity amongst those who spoke Omniscient Salvation in other languages but offered moral support to Russian Jews who didn't appreciate the blasphemy of stating "Jesus Christ" over and over again! Thus is the subtle and controversial attitude.
They called her the Red Virgin.......1999-09-28
Simone Weil's writings were impenetrable for me in the fifties. Now I have most of her works and I am frequently amazed at how penetrating are her ideas and thoughts, and how contrary to most thinking today. That in itself recommends her. She understands people, life, and suffering, and sees its purpose. She sees through all falseness to the goodness. Simone Weil is the most honest person I know or have heard of. Yet while her classmate, Simone de Beauvoir is famous Simone Weil is relatively unknown. She loves Plato, Buddhism, Geometry, Jesus, working people, her homeland, France, but she rejected the Catholic Church, baptism, and Judaism (her background). She is a saint if there ever was one. I am profoundly grateful for having known something of her, her diamond mind, and her beautiful soul.
Mind-blowing aphorisms..........1998-09-02
This young lady's writings and personal story blow away most other 20th Century thinkers. These are mainly short blasts. Provocative. Accessible. Yet push you further than you've likely been. Lots of ancient Christian desert hermit influence (St. Theresa, St. John of the Cross, Philokalia) on this revolutionary, radical mind. Timeless. Challenging. Simple. Confounds modernism.
Average customer rating:
- Brilliant analysis of the Iliad
|
Simone Weil's the Iliad or the Poem of Force: A Critical Edition
Manufacturer: Peter Lang Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Literary Theory
| History & Criticism
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Greek & Roman
| Mythology
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Women Writers & Feminist Theory
| Books & Reading
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Semiotics
| Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Epic
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Classics
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Women's Studies
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Women Writers
| Women's Studies
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Weil, Simone
| ( W )
| Authors, A-Z
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Ancient Greek
| Instruction
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
War and the Iliad
-
On Violence (Harvest Book)
-
The Promise of Politics
-
The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War
-
War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning
ASIN: 0820463612 |
Book Description
Simone Weil, a brilliant young teacher, philosopher, and social activist, wrote the essay, The Iliad or the Poem of Force at France at the beginning of World War II. Her profound meditation on the nature of violence provides a remarkably vivid and accessible testament of the Greek epic's continuing relevance to our lives. This celebrated work appears here for the first time in a bilingual version, based on the text of the authoritative edition of the author's complete writings. An introduction discusses the significance of the essay both in the evolution of Weil's thought and as a distinctively iconoclastic contribution to Homeric studies. The commentary draws on recent interpretations of the Iliad and examines the parallels between Weil's vision of Homer's warriors and the experiences of modern soldiers.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant analysis of the Iliad.......2004-06-16
There's been a lot of renewed interest in The Iliad lately- some of it stems from "Troy", the Brad Pitt vehicle, but much of it comes from the inevitable drawing of parallels between yesterday and today. With more and more talk of America as "empire", reflections on empires and wars fought in years past has been a hot topic of discussion. Lewis Lapham, in his excellent collection of essays "Theater of War", has one particularly astute essay drawing a parallel between the Peloponnysian war and the current wars being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other works, particularly recent books by Chris Hedges, have attempted to delve into the psychology, the reason, of war, rather than just the methods used to wage it. Simone Weil writes in a similar vein, albeit over 50 years ahead of her time. The book itself is an extended essay- in French and English. She picks through the Iliad, drawing out a verse and following it with analyses, successfully laying out her thesis- that the main character of the Iliad is, in fact, "force". Not Achilles, not Hector, but force itself. The use of it, the misuse of it, and the fates of those who rely on it. Citing some of the most insightful passages in the Iliad, and sometimes just a single line ("Ares is just, and kills those who kill"), Weil uses the Iliad as a launching pad into the psychology of war and violence. Having lived through WWII, one can imagine Weil didn't look far for contempory situations to draw parallels to. Overall, this is an excellent work- any fan of the Iliad, or any student of war, would do well to pick it up.
Books:
- Walk in My Soul
- What We Lost: Based on a True Story
- When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today
- Where the Red Fern Grows
- Windows Vista Inside Out
- Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy
- Words of Wisdom: Daily Affirmations of Faith
- 100 Butterflies and Moths: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica
- Alexander Hamilton
- Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Brazilian Adventure
- The Essential EatingWell Cookbook: Good Carbs, Good Fats, Great Flavors
- Monumental Propaganda
- Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route
- Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination
- String Theory and M-Theory: A Modern Introduction
- Rail-trails Southeast: Alabama, Florida ,georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Caro
- Local government motor vehicle taxation in Indonesia
- Multipreneuring
- 1997 Connecticut State Register & Manual
Gravity and Grace (Routledge Classics)
The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind (Routledge Classics)
Simone Weil: An Anthology
Letter to a Priest
Lectures on Philosophy
