Hailey Paine

PHIL 1000
Prof. Alexander Izrailevsky, Ph.D.
April 18, 2024

Simone Weil

Before I delve into her thoughts and biography I would like to note that there has been

little effort made to build and structure Simone Weil’s epistemology and ontology in comparison

to her contemporaries. Her works consist of a series of manuscripts and essays– all published

after her death by those she entrusted her notebooks to. Her philosophical, political, and religious

thought will all evolve throughout her life as the state of the world rapidly changed around her.

In her short 34 years, she lived a life worth many. In this essay I will attempt to explore some

themes within her thought.

“Philosophy is to reflection what the work of the hands is to action”

-Simone Weil, “On Thought and Work”

Biography

Simone Adolphine Weil was born February 3rd, 1909 in Paris, France. She was born into

a typical agnostic, bourgeois family, which provided her a privileged childhood. Her older

brother Andre would later become one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th

century. Even at an early age, Weil was highly opinionated and displayed a strong sense of

altruism. Around the age of six she, as an act of solidarity, refused to eat more sugar than what

was allotted to French troops stationed on the Western Front.

 In 1925, she attended Lycée Henry-IV in Paris as a pupil of French philosopher Emile

Chartier– known under the pseudonym Alain. Her time at lycée was spent studying philosophy

and classical literature; developing theoretical tools and forming critiques on philosophical

tradition. In 1928, she gained admission to the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure after

beating Simone de Bouvior on the entrance exam.

“I envied her [Weil] for having a heart that could beat right across the world. One day I managed

to approach her. I don’t remember how the conversation began; she declared in no uncertain

terms that one thing alone mattered in the world today: the Revolution that would feed all the

people on earth. I retorted, no less peremptorily, that the problem was not to make men happy,

but to find a meaning for their existence. She looked me up and down: “It is easy to see you have

never gone hungry,” she said. Our relationship stopped there.”

– Simone de Bouvior, “Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter”

She studied philosophy, completing her dissertation “Science et Perception dan

Descartes” in 1931. Following her graduation from Ecole Normale Superieure and completion of

the agrégation examination, Weil was assigned to teach at a girl’s secondary school in Le Puy.

While she taught as a profession, she would routinely take breaks to lobby for and write on

behalf of French labor groups. In 1932, she would stay six weeks in Berlin in an attempt to

understand why Nazism was gaining traction. Her observations of Germany’s trade unions

helped shape her notions on revolution and form strong criticisms of social organizations.

Taking a sabbatical from teaching in 1934, Weil spent a year working in Parisian

factories. She had little experience with physical labor, and was known to be uncoordinated,
nearsighted, and prone to migraines. Her time laboring would leave her to contemplate what it

means to actually “suffer”- attributing physical suffering to humiliation and a form of slavery.

While on holiday in Portugal, Weil would have her first significant contact with

Christianity. As she watched a procession in honor of the patron saint of fishing villagers, she

came to the conclusion that: “Christianity is pre-eminently the religion of slaves, that slaves

cannot help belong to it, and I among others”. In her later years she would become more

introspective in her thoughts on Christianity, and religion in general. This evolution would

ultimately lead her to renounce ideology, institution, and materialism for religious reflection.

In August of 1936 she gained journalist credentials through the Durutti Column, an

anarchist brigade fighting against the Francos in Spain. She was outspoken with her arguments

on fascism and authoritarian logic– favoring the communist position and France’s decision to not

intervene in the war. Her involvement in the Spanish Civil War Due was cut short due to her

nearsighted vision; stepping into a pot of cooking oil and severely burning her leg and foot.

Weil’s family was of Jewish descent and World War II began while Weil was home in

Paris. She and her family temporarily relocated to Vichy, as did many, following the German

Western campaign in 1940. In Vichy, she found work on the farm of Catholic writer Gustave

Thibon; who she would later entrust many of her manuscripts to. Weil was not left without

privilege while she worked on Thibon’s farm, sleeping in his house and eating meals with him.

She reportedly carried a copy of Plato’s “Symposium” while working in the vineyards in

attempts to teach its text to the other laborers.

Via Morocco, Weil and her family traveled to New York to escape building antisemitism

in 1942. In New York she filled notebooks full of philosophical, theological and mathematical

considerations but ultimately felt removed from the sufferings of France. The Free French
movement started to blossom in London and Weil relocated to Great Britain. Securing a job

within the French provisional government, Weil journaled reports from non-occupied zones.

In April 1943 she was diagnosed with tuberculosis; in solidarity with French soldiers she

refused to eat the food doctors prescribed to her. Confining herself to her apartment, Weil writes

for long hours each day and her health starts to deteriorate rapidly. On August 24, 1943 she is

pronounced dead by cardiac failure and self-startvation– noted as a suicide by the doctor that

examined her.

Epistemology

Her cogito “I think, therefore I can”, was devised during the formation of her dissertation

of Decartes, closely aligning with his “cogito ergo sum”. Similar to Decartes, she asserts that the

self has the power of freedom, but God reminds us that we are not all-powerful. Inspired by

Pythagoras, she declares mathematics as the bridge between the natural (human) and eternal

(God). The study of mathematics was a means to purify thought and balance contraries. To her,

knowledge is gained through suffering and requires balanced and attentive thinking. Knowledge

of the ‘truth’ should not limit one’s perspective, and one should not allow themself to let the truth

limit their epistemic humility.

Concepts of Necessity and Contradiction

Weil argued that contradictions are a test of necessity, allowing the mind to expand. One

may feel as if they hit a ‘dead end’ when encountering a contradiction leading to involuntary

rejection. But Weil states that any contradiction should be seen as a generative obstacle– leading

one to transcend this barrier with the broadening of their thought processes. As Weil becomes
more exposed to Christianity, she connects this notion to her ontological concept of the real (le

réel). She suggests that the obstacles presented by contradictions (the real) act as the mediators

of reality. This act of mediation is the result of God’s indirect presence in the world. This notion

that contraries (and the obstacles they present) act as mediators, should ultimately lead to the

transformation of one’s own knowledge and one’s soul.

The Concept of Reading

In her “Essay on the Concept of Reading”, Weil presents her concept of reading– a

concept she does not borrow from any other philosopher. Reading can be described as one’s

ability to receive and attribute information (be it a situation, other people, ect.) in the world.

Reading is always mediated, as a reader will always interpret what is read based on their own

interpretations. These interpretations are unique and specific to each reader as one’s

interpretations are determined by one’s physical sensations and social conditions (taking from

Descartes’ structure of thinking). In order to expand our awareness and sensitivity, one must read

through the attention of another in order to avoid the reading to be compromised by personal

bias. By acknowledging bias in readers (us), Weil determines that any reading can be affected by

power dynamics– connecting her epistemology to her Social philosophy.

Oppression

On her notion of Oppression, Weil found Marx to be essential, however he failed to

understand the causations of oppression. Oppression is not exclusive to large societies or

political powers, but can manifest in any structure of labor. Oppression is exacerbated by those

who hold privilege, keeping the healthy and organic growth of communities at bay. As a means
to aid revolutionaries and social movements, Weil attempted to provide analysis of the causes of

oppression. She was concerned that without this analysis, only minute and superficial changes

could be made by the social movements aiming to correct oppressive systems. The labor she

performed working in factories deepened her political pessimism, profoundly impacting her

notions of privilege, revolution, and freedom.

Religious Ontology

Weil’s theological thought has attracted both deep appreciation and reproval from

Christian thinkers. For her, God is purely good, infinite, eternal, and also non-existent. Out of

love, God has abdicated himself so that something else (the universe) could take his place.

However, God is not entirely void of our world, and indirectly resides in things such as beauty,

tradition, pain, law, and labor– connecting us to reality. If we are to imitate God, then we are to

do the same as him and renounce our power and autonomy (our centeredness in the universe)–

this is Weil’s concept of decreation.

Unlike her existentialist contemporaries, Weil did not think freedom could be accessed

solely through personal agency. She recognized that if reality is mediated by contraries, then it is

limited and contingent. The social forces of human life are intertwined with the physical forces

of the world– subjugating us to a “network of necessity”. Her stoic appeal to amor fati presents

an interesting view of consent as a form of reconciliation. Since we are subjugated to this

network of necessity– we are enslaved. Enslavement is the fate of all humans. By participating in

reality, you are consenting to necessity. By obeying necessity you are accepting divine will.

Weil’s most notable contribution to religious philosophy are her notions of “gravity” and

“grace”. “Gravity” can be described as the physical forces that we are subjected to. Gravity is the
evil that attempts to pull us away from God. “Grace” is the counterbalance to Gravity. Grace is

supernatural, serving to orient the world of necessity. Grace is given to us by God in the form of

motivation and goodness. These forces govern the fundamental aspects of the created universe.

My Thoughts

In general, I hold light criticism for many of the prominent philosophers of the twentieth

century. Many of them were born into places of wealth and/or privilege. Even in light of war

(both World Wars in Weil’s case), many of these thinkers never grew up worrying about the basic

necessities of life (food, water, shelter, ect). Their ability to express (= pursue and publish)

philosophical thought is one of privilege. Their birthright however, is not one they had control

over– we do not get to choose the place we are born into. My criticism is not of their privilege,

but that this privilege allowed them to think on and form analysis of the sufferings of those

below them. Much of the philosophical analyses we have of how society treats the individual,

and most notably the proletariat, has disproportionately been written by those with privilege .

While Weil embodied her thought with action, she always had a “soft place to land” due

her family’s financial standings. I feel like this privilege allowed her to be reckless in a sense,

she had health issues most of her life, and she actively ignored them– contributing to her early

passing. She attempted to join revolutionary forces fighting in the Spanish Civil War, and was

often discounted in fear that she would endanger others due to her (or lack thereof) physical

abilities. Still she persisted.

My criticism aside, I cannot help but to look at her stubbornness with intense admiration.

The stubbornness she exhibited did not keep her and her philosophical thought from evolving

throughout her life. Her stark critique of Christianity in her early years transformed as she
became more exposed to Christianity. Her exposure to and eventual acceptance of Christianity

was something that was not popular within the philosophical circles of that time. She was one of

few female students to be accepted into the Ecole Normale Superieure. Being a woman in the

male-dominated space of philosophy and activism opened her up to an unreasonable amount of

criticism on her person. She refused to theorize on problems without engaging and experiencing

them first hand. Despite her willingness to adapt with the world around her, she always held firm

to her beliefs and was consistent with her attention to those who were oppressed and

marginalized.

Bibliography:

Collins, R. L. (n.d.). Simone Weil Timeline. Attention. Retrieved April 18, 2024, from
https://attentionsw.org/simone-weil-timeline/

Meltzer, F. (2001). The Hands of Simone Weil. Critical Inquiry, 27(4), 611–628.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1344316

Lynch, T. (n.d.). Simone Weil (1909—1943). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved

April 18, 2024, from https://iep.utm.edu/weil/

Rozelle-Stone, A. Rebecca and Benjamin P. Davis, "Simone Weil", The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Summer 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL =
<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2023/entries/simone-weil/>.

Salmon, P. (2023, February 1). Simone Weil Was a Saint of the Socialist Movement. Retrieved
April 18, 2024, from
https://jacobin.com/2023/01/simone-weil-philosophy-marxism-anti-fascism-labor-suffering#:~:te
xt=In%20one%20of%20her%20earliest,Visiting%20Germany%2C%20Weil%20saw%20no

Weil, S., & Springsted, E. O. (2015). Simone Weil: Late Philosophical Writings (pp. 21-27).
University of Notre Dame Press. http://www.pub22.net/ph-221/weil-reading-essay.pdf