Simone Weil: Basic Writings

Simone Weil is one of the most profound and thought-provoking thinkers of the 20th century. A teacher, factory and farm labourer, a political activist at home and abroad, a loving friend, daughter and sisterall these manifest a life devoted to the good in its many forms. Her writings explore the good open to us and the various routes to it, spanning philosophy, politics, science and spirituality. While she saw her vocation primarily as a philosopherexamining questions concerning human faculties, action and thought, the limits of language and our need of mediation, suffering and beauty for contact with realityher startlingly original thought is often obscured by her having been too readily categorized as a Christian mystic. Simone Weil: Basic Writings is an expertly edited anthology of Weils most important writings, presenting her philosophy as it relates to the architecture of human nature, politics, work, necessity, beauty, goodness and God. Working from the definitive French edition of Weils complete writings, D. K. Levy and Marina Barabas have translated the essays anew or for the first time, adding important notes and references absent from existing English language editions of Weils work. Following an extensive introduction that gives an overview of Weil's life and thought, each part opens with a short preface situating the selected essays within Weils oeuvre. Simone Weil: Basic Writings provides an excellent entry point to Weils philosophy, as well as a reference for students and scholars of Weil's thought in philosophy and related disciplines.