The Philosophy of Simone Weil Essay -- Philosopher Simone Weil Essays

The Philosophy of Simone Weil In the final entry to her London notebooks, Simone Weil writes "Philosophy is exclusively an affair of action and practice. That is why it is so difficult to write about. Difficult in the same way as a treatise on tennis or running, but much more so." (Allen, p. 157) In these next few pages I will try to relay the basic ideas contained in Simone Weil's works. Because of the extensiveness and complexity of her work, I will be using her words exactly, as often as possible. Simone Weil was a trained philosopher and a teacher of philosophy. She was a political theorist and activist, a revolutionary, a laborer in the French fields and factories and toward the end of he life, she was a mystic. She believed in the transcendent powers of God. Much of her writing dealt with the ways in which God touches our lives, and the ways we can "find" or open ourselves to him. In her works, she spent a good deal of time defining and describing terms such as beauty and affliction, and describing solutions to social ills. First and foremost it is important to understand the relationship the Weil had with God. She had many mystical experiences in her life in which she walked and talked with God. One of these experiences in particular is described in volume two of her notebooks in a brief essay called "Come With Me." In this essay she recounts a story in which God comes and visit her. He takes her up to the attic of a church where they live for three days, eating only bread and drinking only water. But she had interesting notions about him and his existence; not notions that would seem consistent with having met with him. She explains that God is "everything that we are not" (Little, p. 57 ). But she goes on to ... ...egin. I suppose this is an issue Gardner faced in the beginning of his search as well; the abyss of the unknown. But it is an area I am interested in, even more so that the other frames we have studied, and I look forward to thinking in these terms as I further my studies in philosophy and spirituality. Works Cited: Allen, Diogenes and Springsted, Eric O. Spirit, Nature and Community. State University of New York Press. Albany, New York. 1994. Indinoplulos, Thomas A. and Knoppzadorsky, Josephine. Mysticism, Nihilism, Feminism. Institute of Social Sciences and Arts. Johnson City, Tennessee. 1984. Little, J.P. Simone Weil. St. Martin's Press. New York, New York. 1988. McFarland, Dorothy Tuck. Simone Weil. Fredrick Unger Publishing Co. New York, New York. 1983. Panichas, George A. (ed.) Simone Weil Reader. Moyer Bell Limited. Mt Kisco, New York.1977.