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The Philosophy of Simone Weil

Course Guide 2020/2021 (Covid-19 Special)

Dr. David Levy, david.levy@ed.ac.uk

O fce Hour: Tuesday 4-5 p.m. (via Microsoft Teams, arrange in advance by email)

Course Secretary: Ann-Marie Cowe,

@ed.ac.uk

Course Overview

T is course considers the philosophical aspects of the thinking of Simone Weil, the twentieth- century writer best known for her spiritual writings. However, Simone Weil was trained in philosophy, taught philosophy, and always returned to a philosophical method in her thinking. She is not a theologian because she is not mainly interested in divine creation or His intercession in the world, not least because her vision is of a divine abdication or self- removal from the world. W e will examine her mature philosophical thought by reading some of her essays from

1940-1943 (except 1937 for week 4). Weil ofers a philosophically radical account of the

nature of a human being in its capacity to think, act, contemplate, etc. Tis account in turn leads to her consideration of the nature of labour/work, force, love, attention, study and the needs of the soul. T ough she is a modern thinker, she is takes Plato as her starting point. Her political interest in justice, politics, society and our needs are de f ned by considering the nature of a human person, not the body politic, using the current situation of our civilisation for context. We will begin in week 2 with her untitled essay masterwork, known usually as "Human Personality," which provides a map to the rest of the readings in the course. In the last week we will consider her impact on subsequent thinkers by considering her impact on

Iris Murdoch.

Requirements

T e format of this course is a weekly video recording and an in-person tutorial focused on reading and interpreting Weil's own writings. It requires your participation, there are no outlines of course content to share, though I will give you mind maps as aids to revision.

Each week there are one or two

required readings indicated below. I will discuss the reading(s) in the recorded video lecture I will post to LEARN each week, but I will not summarise it. Instead, I will elaborate some ideas and relate them to them to other philosophical ideas. Please bring the texts to the tutorials so that we can discuss passages in detail. Review the essay questions at the end of this guide to prompt your thinking about the text. 'You must read the articles/chapters given on page 3 below for the corresponding week, in advance, in preparation for our discussion in the seminar. T e discussion in class is no substitute for reading this material carefully. T e readings are deceptively di f cult; are not like ordinary journal articles in philosophy; and require e f ort to reconstruct the arguments. All the readings are online. In every week except weeks 5 and 11, we will use my draft translations.

I'm sharing them with you.

Please do not share them with

anyone else without my permission.

Assessment

Two Essays

e rst essay of 1500 words is worth 40 per cent of your nal course mark. It will be due

Wednesday March 10th.

e second essay of 2500 words is worth 55 per cent of your nal course mark and will be due Tuesday April 13th. You may use any recognised style of referencingÑuse one consistently. You can cite my translations as follows, e.g., Weil, Simone,

ÒPre-condition of non-servile work,Ó trans. D. Levy, translatorÕs manuscript, 2021. Ideally

page references will use the page numbers given in square braces, e.g. 420e, not pages of the

PDF. İ

ese page references are to the

Oeuvres Complètes

edition of WeilÕs work.l

Participation Mark

You can add up to

ve per cent to your nal course mark by writing ve short summaries of weekly readings. You can choose to summarise any ve readings from weeks 2 through 11. Each summary should be at least 200 words and no more than 300. I will give you a mark from 1 to 5 for each. At the end, I will add these and divide by ve, then round up, then multiply by 20. at will be your normalised mark for this component of assessment. For example, if you do four summaries, each graded 5, then 5+5+5+5=20, 20/5=4, 4x20=80, giving a mark of 80 for this component of assessment. Marking will re ect a clear summary of the piece, not analysis or argument. ese are easy marks to get, I expect each will take less than

45 minutes to write. Feedback will be brief and only if the mark is less than 5.

Send your summary to me by email by midnight on the Monday of the week when we will discuss the readingÑno extensions. For example, send me a summary for week 3, by Monday January 25th or earlier. It will help me if you put your name on the summary.

Coursework Dissertation

Students who qualify İusually fourth year single honours philosophy studentsl may submit a coursework dissertation instead of all other assessments İincluding participation marksl. If you do any other assessment in this class, you cannot do the coursework dissertation. Do not do the participation marks work eitherÑor if you do tell me not to mark it. Coursework dissertations are submitted online, please check with the Teaching O ce for further details on submission. e title of your dissertation must be approved in advance by submitting it to me in person or by email. Generally, any question listed below for discussion in a seminar is a suitable short dissertation title.

MSc assessment

MSc students are assessed by a single essay of 2500 words. e title of your essay must be approved in advance by submitting it to me in person or by email.

Contacts

You may contact me by email at david.levy@ed.ac.uk. I am available Tuesday of each week from 4 until 5 p.m. to discuss more or less any philosophical topic, related to this course or not. Please send me an email in advance that you want to meet, advising me of the topic for discussion, and I will call you using Microsoft Teams during my o ce hour. If Tuesday 4-5 p.m. is problematic, please email me to arrange an alternative time. If you have questions about the mechanics of submitting assignments or other logistical matters please contact the course secretary, Ann-Marie Cowe. -2 -

Our Motto

ÒTo be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts ... but so to love wisdom as to liveaccording to its dictates ... It is to solve some of the problems of life, not just theoretically, but practically.ÓÑHenry David "oreau, Walden

Weekly Readings

Please read both readings where two are indicated. I am listing other translations for contrast,though many have signi$cant faults. All reading materials will be on LEARN except week 5.Abbreviations for books:AA = Simone Weil: An Anthology, ed. Si‰n Miles, Grove Press; Virago, 1986; reprinted Penguin Classics 2005.R = !e Simone Weil Reader, ed. George A Panichas, Moyer Bell Ltd, 1977.LPW = Simone Weil: Late philosophical writings, ed. Eric Springsted, University of Notre Dame Press, 2015.SE = Simone Weil: Selected essays 1934-43, ed. Richard Rees, Oxford University Press, 1962, reprinted in new edition 2015.Week 1: ÒStudy for a declaration of obligations to the human beingÓ and ZaretskyÕs Ò&at We Owe to Others: Simone WeilÕs Radical ReminderÓ from the NY Times. Consider reading a biographical summary in one of the texts below or above, or review some of the background philosophical reading. Week 2: ÒCollectivity Ñ Person Ñ Impersonal Ñ Rights Ñ JusticeÓ known also as ÒHuman PersonalityÓ available in AA, R, SE, and LPW and as an appendix to David McLellan, SimoneWeil: Utopian Pessimist, Macmillan, 1990.Week 3: (i) ÒEssay on the concept of readingÓ and ÒSome re%exions on the concept of value.ÓAlso (i) Philosophical Investigations 13:4, 1990, 297-303 and (ii) Philosophical Investigations 37:2, 2014, 105-112.Week 4: ÒLetÕs not restart the Trojan War,Ó known as Ò"e Power of WordsÓ available in AA, R, SE. Also WampoleÕs Ò"e Perils of AbstractionÓ from the NY Times.Week 5: Ò"e Iliad or the poem of forceÓ for which I prefer this online version, http://www.holoka.com/pdf-$les/weil.pdf though the McCarthy translation is also widely available online. Also available in AA, R and !e Iliad or the poem of force: A Critical Edition, ed.James Holoka, Peter Lang, 2003; War and the Iliad: Simone Weil & Rachel Bespalo", NY Review of Books, 2005; Simone Weil, Intimations of Christianity among the Ancient Greeks, Routledge 1957.Week 6: Extract from ÒPrelude to a declaration of duties toward the human beingÓ known as part I Ò"e needs of the soulÓ in !e Need for Roots: Prelude to a declaration of duties to mankind, Routledge, 1952. Also in AA.Week 7: ÒLegitimacy of the provisional government,Ó also in Philosophical Investigations 10:2, 1987.- 3 -

Week 8: ÒAre we struggling for justice?Ó also in Philosophical Investigations 10:1, 1987.Week 9: ÒPrecondition of non-servile workÓ also available in AA and LPW.Week 10: Ò"e love of God and a'iction,Ó available in R and SW [in a longer version]; and Simone Weil, Waiting for God, Putnam, 1951; Simone Weil, Awaiting God, Fresh Wind, 2012; Week 11: Iris Murdoch, ÒOn ÔGodÕ and ÔGoodÕ,Ó in !e Sovereignty of Good, Routledge, 1970, 46-76; reprinted in Iris Murdoch, Existentialists and Mystics, ed. Conradi, Chatto & Windus, 1997, 337-362; originally in !e Anatomy of Knowledge, ed. Marjorie Green, Routledge, 1969.

General Reading

ere is no single, philosophy textbook on WeilÕs philosophy.

Additional Books by Simone Weil"is list is not exhaustive in conjunction with those mentioned above, but this covers the large bulk of those available in English.Weil, Simone. Awaiting God: A New Translation of Attente de Dieu and Lettre a Un Religieux. Abbotsford, BC: Fresh Wind Press, 2013.ÑÑÑ. First and Last Notebooks. United States: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2015.ÑÑÑ. Formative Writings, 1929-1941. Translated Dorothy Tuck McFarland and Wilhelmina van Ness. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.ÑÑÑ. Gravity and Grace. London: Routledge, 1952, rev. edition 2002.ÑÑÑ. Intimations of Christianity Among the Ancient Greeks. London: Ark Paperbacks, 1987.ÑÑÑ. Lectures on Philosophy. Translated Hugh Price. Cambridge University Press, 1978.ÑÑÑ. On the Abolition of All Political Parties. Translated Simon Leys. Australia: Black, 2013.ÑÑÑ. Oppression and Liberty. London: Routledge, 1988.ÑÑÑ. Seventy Letters. United States: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2015.ÑÑÑ. Simone Weil: Late Philosophical Writings. Edited by Eric O. Springsted. United States: University of Notre Dame Press, 2015.ÑÑÑ. !e Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind. Translated A. F. Wills. London: Ark Paperbacks, 1987.ÑÑÑ. !e Simone Weil Reader. Edited by George A. Panichas. New Haven, CT: Moyer Bell, 1977.ÑÑÑ. Waiting for God. Translated Emma Craufurd. New York: Perennial Library, 1973.Secondary Reading"ese additional readings are useful as background. For background each week, consider one or two extra readings. For an essay, consider four or more.Week 1: IntroductionPalle Yourgrau, Simone Weil, Reaktion 2011.Robert Chenavier, Simone Weil: Attention to the Real, tr. B. Doering, University of Notre Dame Press, 2012.ÒIntroductionÓ in Simone Weil: An Anthology, ed. Si‰n Miles, Grove Press; Virago, 1986; reprinted Penguin Classics 2005.Little, J.P., Simone Weil: Waiting on Truth, Oxford: Berg, 1988.David McLellan, Simone Weil: Utopian Pessimist, Macmillan, 1990.Mario von der Ruhr. Simone Weil: An Apprenticeship in Attention. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006.Abosch, Heinz, A Kenny, and Kimberly A. Kenny. Simone Weil: An Introduction. New York: Pennbridge Books, 1994.Hellman, John, Simone Weil: An Introduction to her thought, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1982.PŽtrement, Simone. Simone Weil: A Life. Translated by Raymond Rosenthal. New York: Schocken Books, 1989.Fiori, Gabriella. Simone Weil, an Intellectual Biography. University of Georgia Press, 1989.Perrin, J. M., Gustave "ibon, Simone Weil as We Knew Her. London: Taylor & Francis, 2003.Tomlin , E. W. F. Simone Weil. Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes, 1954.Plant, Stephen. Simone Weil. London: Fount, 1996.- 5 -

It is useful to re-acquaint yourself with some important works to which Weil was responding, speci$cally:Plato, Republic, especially 493a-e, 509d1-511, 514-521.Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, especially Meditation II; or Principles of First Philosophy, especially Part I, Art. 7.Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.Week 2: ÒCollectivity Ñ Person Ñ Impersonal Ñ Rights Ñ JusticeÓHamilton, Christopher, "Simone Weil's 'Human Personality': Between the Personal and the Impersonal," Harvard !eological Review, 2005.Burns, Steven, "Justice and Impersonality: Simone Weil on Rights and Obligations," Laval thŽologique et philosophique, 49:3, 1993, 477Ð486.Dargan, Joan, Simone Weil: !inking Poetically, State University of New York Press, 1999.[Chapter 1]Hermsen, Joke J., Ò"e Impersonal and the Other,Ó !e European Journal of Women's Studies, 6,1999, 183-200.Peter Winch, Simone Weil:Ó!e just balance,Ó Cambridge University Press, 1989.[ Esp. chapter 9]Springsted, Eric, ÒOf Tennis, Persons and Politics,Ó Philosophical Investigations, 16:3, 1993, 198-211.Pirruccello, Ann, ÒÔGravityÕ in the "ought of Simone Weil,Ó Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 57:1, 1997, 73-93.Teuber, Andreas, ÒSimone Weil: Equality as Compassion,Ó Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 43:2, 1982, 221-237.Andrew, Edward. ÒSimone Weil on the Injustice of Rights-Based Doctrines,Ó Review of Politics,48, 1986, 60-91.Hamilton, Christopher, ÒRaimond Gaita on Saints, Love and Human Preciousness,Ó Ethical !eory and Moral Practice, 11, 2008, 181Ð195.Rozelle-Stone, A. Rebecca and Lucian Stone, eds. !e Relevance of the Radical: Simone Weil 100 Years Later. United Kingdom: T.& T.Clark, 2009.[Esp. chapter 3]Dietz, Mary G. Between the Human and the Divine: !e Political !ought of Simone Weil. New York, NY, Rowman & Little$eld, 1988.[Esp. part I]Dilman, lham, !e Self, the Soul and the Psychology of Good and Evil, Routledge, 2005.Sharp, Ann Margaret, ÒSimone Weil on Friendship," Philosophy Today, 22, 1978, 266-275.McCullough, Lissa, ÒSimone WeilÕs Phenomenology of the Body, Comparative and Continental Philosophy, 4:2, 2012, 195Ð218.Andic, Martin, ÒSimone Weil and Kierkegaard,Ó Modern !eology, 2:1, 1985, 20-41.Cockburn, David, ÒSelf, World and God in Spinoza and Weil,Ó Studies in World Christianity, 4:2, 1998, 173Ð186.Week 3: Reading and ValuePeter Winch, Simone Weil:Ó!e just balance,Ó Cambridge University Press, 1989. [Esp. chapters 2-4]Little, JP, ÒSimone Weil and the Limits of Language,Ó in Dunaway, JM, Springsted, EO (eds.), !e Beauty !at Saves: Essays on Aesthetics and Language in Simone Weil, Mercer UniversityPress, 39-54, 1996.- 6 -

Bell, Richard (ed). Simone WeilÕs Philosophy of Culture: Readings Toward a Divine Humanity. Cambridge University Press, 1993. [Chapter 4, 5, 6]Bowden, Peta, ÒEthical Attention: Accumulating Understandings,Ó European Journal of Philosophy, 6:1, 1998, 59Ð77.Andic, Martin, ÒSimone Weil and Shakespeare's FoolsÓ in !e Beauty !at Saves: Essays on Aesthetics and Language in Simone Weil, Mercer University Press, 197-215, Chapter 13, 1996.Hermsen, Joke J. Ò&o is the Spectator? Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil on "inking and Judging,Ó in J. J. Hermsen (ed.), !e Judge and the Spectator: Hannah Arendt on !ought and Action, Leuven: Peeters, 1999.Rozelle-Stone, A. Rebecca and Lucian Stone, eds. !e Relevance of the Radical: Simone Weil 100 Years Later. United Kingdom: T.& T.Clark, 2009. [Esp. chapter 9]Allen, Diogenes. and Springsted, Eric O., Spirit, Nature, and Community: Issues in the !ought of Simone Weil, State University of New York Press, 1994. [Chapter 4]Cockburn, David, ÒIn the Beginning Was the Deed,Ó Philosophical Investigations, 36:4, 2013, 303-319.Stewart-Robertson, Charles, ÒPhilosophical Re%ections on the Obligation to Attend,Ó Philosophy Today, 31, 1987, 54-68.Week 4: "inking clearly and the power of wordsDietz, Mary G., Between the Human and the Divine: !e Political !ought of Simone Weil. New York, NY, Rowman & Little$eld, 1988.[Esp. part II]Radzins, Inese, ÒSimone Weil's Political "eology,Ó Political !eology, 17, 226-242, 2016.Finch, Henry Leroy. Simone Weil and the Intellect of Grace: A Window on the World of Simone Weil. Edited by Martin Andic. New York: Continuum, 2001. [Esp. chapter 6]Bell, Richard (ed). Simone WeilÕs Philosophy of Culture: Readings Toward a Divine Humanity. Cambridge University Press, 1993. [Chapter 4]David McLellan, Simone Weil: Utopian Pessimist, Macmillan, 1990. [Chapter 4]Blum, Lawrence A and Victor J Seidler. A Truer Liberty: Simone Weil and Marxism. London: Routledge, 1990.Rhees, Rush and Mario Von Der Ruhr. Discussions of Simone Weil. State University of New York Press, 2000. [Esp. part one]Peter Winch, Simone Weil:Ó!e just balance,Ó Cambridge University Press, 1989. [Esp. chapter 7]Grote, Jim, ÒPrestige: Simone Weil's "eory of Social Force,Ó Spirituality Today, 42:3, 1990, 217-232.Doering, E. Jane and E. O. Springsted (eds.), !e Christian Platonism of Simone Weil, University of Notre Dame Press, 2004.[Esp. chapters 4, 6, 7]Rozelle-Stone, A. Rebecca and Lucian Stone, eds. !e Relevance of the Radical: Simone Weil 100 Years Later. United Kingdom: T.& T.Clark, 2009. [Esp. chapter 9]Hamilton, Christopher, ÒPower, Punishment and Reconciliation in the Political and Social "ought of Simone Weil,Ó European Journal of Social !eory, 11:3, 315-330, 2008.Week 5: "e Iliad!e Iliad or the poem of force: A Critical Edition, ed. James Holoka, Peter Lang, 2003 ["is has a section by section reading and commentary on the WeilÕs essay, with the French text included.]Simonsuuri, Kirsti, ÒSimone Weil's Interpretation of Homer,Ó La PensŽe, 2012, 166-177.- 7 -

Meltzer, Françoise, "Te Hands of Simone Weil," Critical Inquiry, 27:4, 2001, 611-628.

Springsted, Eric, "

T e Religious Basis of Culture: T.S. Eliot and Simone Weil,"

Religious

Studies

, 25:1, 1989, 105-116.

Springsted, Eric, "'

T ou hast given me room': Simone Weil's Retheologization of the

Political," in

Cahiers Simone Weil,

20, 1997, 87-98.

Moulakis, A.,

Simone Weil and the Politics of Self-Denial,

University of Missouri Press,

1998.

Week 7

: Legitimacy Heifetz, A. and Enrico Minelli, "Overlapping Consensus T in and T ick: John Rawls and

Simone Weil,"

Philosophical Investigations

, 2015. Lassman, Peter, "Politics and 'the fragility of the ethico-cultural',"

History of the Human

Sciences

, 13:1, 125-139, 2000.

Schmidt, L. and Maratto, S., "

T e Measure of Justice: T e Language of Limit as Key to

Simone Weil's Political Philosophy,"

ARC: T e Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies , McGill

University, 28, 2000, 53-66.

Bell, Richard (ed).

Simone Weil's Philosophy of Culture: Readings Toward a Divine Humanity

Cambridge University Press, 1993. [Chapter 10]

Dietz, Mary G.

Between the Human and the Divine:

T e Political T ought of Simone Weil . New

York, NY, Rowman & Little

f eld, 1988.[Esp. part IV]

Rhees, Rush and Mario Von Der Ruhr.

Discussions of Simone Weil

. State University of New

York Press, 2000. [Esp. part one]

Finch, Henry Leroy.

Simone Weil and the Intellect of Grace: A Window on the World of Simone Weil Edited by Martin Andic. New York: Continuum, 2001. [Esp. chapter 7] Springsted, Eric, "Of Tennis, Persons and Politics,"

Philosophical Investigations,

16:3, 1993,

198-211.

Week 8

: Justice

Bell, Richard (ed).

Simone Weil's Philosophy of Culture: Readings Toward a Divine Humanity

Cambridge University Press, 1993. [Chapter 9]

Bell, Richard,

Simone Weil:

T e Way of Justice As Compassion , Rowman & Little f eld, 1998.

Williams, Rowan, "Critical Notice: Simone Weil '

T e Just Balance' by Peter Winch,"

Philosophical Investigations,

14:2, 1991.

Peter Winch,

Simone Weil:"

T e just balance,"

Cambridge University Press, 1989. [Esp. chapter

14] Andic, Martin, "Supernatural Justice and the Madness of Love,"

Cahiers Simone Weil

, XVII.4, 1994.

Schmidt, L. and Maratto, S., "

T e Measure of Justice: T e Language of Limit as Key to

Simone Weil's Political Philosophy,"

ARC: T e Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies , McGill

University, 28, 2000, 53-66.

Heifetz, A. and Enrico Minelli, "Overlapping Consensus T in and T ick: John Rawls and

Simone Weil,"

Philosophical Investigations

, 2015.

Rhees, Rush and Mario Von Der Ruhr.

Discussions of Simone Weil

. State University of New

York Press, 2000. [Esp. part one]

Springsted, Eric, "Of Tennis, Persons and Politics,"

Philosophical Investigations,

16:3, 1993,

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