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83-621: Alain was born in 1868 in Normandy, in the rural town of Mortagne-au-Perche, the son of a veterinary surgeon. After attending the local Catholic school, in 1881 he entered the lycée of Alençon, where he passed the examinations of the Baccalaureat in literature (and failed the science Baccalaureat). He proceeded to the Lycée Michelet in Vanves, a suburb of Paris, where he came under the influence of

166-674: A Dominican Friar . Weil met the French Catholic author Gustave Thibon who owned a farm in the Ardéche region where Weil would later work the grape harvest. Thibon later edited some of her work, helping to draw attention to her spiritually related thought in the English speaking world. Weil encouraged her parents to buy a farm in the Ardèche where they could sustain themselves and work but Weil's family thought it safer to plan to move to America. Weil

249-522: A PhD from Panthéon-Sorbonne University , and is aggregated in philosophy . He is a proponent of atheism and materialism , but in a particular form, because of his spiritualistic aim. The most important aspect of his work is an overcoming of traditional materialistic atheism in a perspective of post-materialism , because he demonstrates a spiritualization of atheism. This is especially present in his essay L'esprit de l'athéisme  [ fr ] , published in 2006. This biography of

332-405: A believer, Alain brings out the force of the human expression in religion, mainly in paganism and Christianity, where he admires the figure of Christ as a rejection of power and force. Overall, the aim of his philosophy was to teach reflection and rational thought, avoiding prejudices. “To think is to say no. Note that the sign for yes is that of a person falling asleep; while to wake up is to shake

415-467: A covert agent. Older biographies suggest Weil made no further progress in achieving her desire to return to France as an agent—she was limited to desk work in London analyzing reports from resistance movements, although this did give her time to write one of her largest and best known works: The Need for Roots . During this time Weil would also write Draft for a Statement of Human Obligations and Note on

498-420: A damned position, not because of original sin , but because to be created at all they must be what God is not; in other words, they must be inherently "unholy" in some sense. This idea fits more broadly into apophatic theology . This notion of creation is a cornerstone of her theodicy , for if creation is conceived this way—as necessarily entailing evil —then there is no problem of the entrance of evil into

581-462: A definition he gave of ‘mind’ ( esprit) : “which is at bottom the power of doubt, which is to raise oneself above all mechanisms, order, virtues, duties, dogmas, to judge them, subordinate them, and replace them by freedom, which only owes anything to itself.” This link between the freedom of the mind and the freedom of the individual can be seen as providing the opening scene to the Existentialism of

664-482: A founding father of modern Europe. Alain's influence was felt beyond his class: Jean-Paul Sartre , and Simone de Beauvoir attended his public lectures, and Raymond Aron became a close acquaintance. He adopted his pseudonym Alain as the most banal he could find. There is no evidence he ever thought in so doing of the 15th century Norman poet Alain Chartier . In 1903 as part of his political activity in support of

747-409: A fragmented way and for which truth is always local, precarious and constantly to be revised. Its coherence is, nevertheless, undeniable and features deep understanding of previous philosophers, from Plato through Descartes to Hegel and Comte, which correlates with the unity of his ideas, and its expression in certain regular themes. Alain is probably best known for his views on politics which argue for

830-564: A lower quality of attention. In 1942, Weil travelled to the United States with her family. She had been reluctant to leave France, but agreed to do so as she wanted to see her parents to safety and knew they would not leave without her. She was also encouraged by the fact that it would be relatively easy for her to reach Britain from the United States, where she could join the French Resistance . She had hopes of being sent back to France as

913-500: A machine-like existence where they could not consider real thought or rebellion with Weil stating "thought flies from affliction as promptly and irresistibly as an animal flees from death". Weil found this force too inhumane stating "affliction constrains a man to ask continually 'why' - the question to which there is essentially no reply" and nothing in the world can rob us of the power to say 'I' except for extreme affliction". According to her, only some souls are capable of experiencing

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996-566: A matter of action based in truth and that truth must be based in something (something lived or experienced). This led Weil to leave Le Puy to work in factories and experience the repetitive machine like work began her definition of le malheur (affliction) with workers reduced to a machine-like existence where they could not consider rebellion. Weil never formally joined the French Communist Party , and in her twenties she became increasingly critical of Marxism. According to Pétrement, she

1079-429: A perfect world. Nor does the presence of evil constitute a limitation of God's omnipotence under Weil's notion; according to her, evil is present not because God could not create a perfect world, but because the act of "creation" in its very essence implies the impossibility of perfection. However, this explanation of the essentiality of evil does not imply that humans are simply, originally, and continually doomed; on

1162-419: A pessimistic account of the limits of both capitalism and socialism . The work however uses a Marxist method of analysis paying attention to oppression, critiquing Weil's own position as an intellectual, advances manual labor, and advances theory and practice. Leon Trotsky himself personally responded to several of her articles, attacking both her ideas and her as a person. However, according to Pétrement, he

1245-406: A plethora of proposals though she was frustrated by feeling she was too safe and not doing enough to address the suffering. De Gaulle rejected her plans and forces were not willing to send her back to France to join the resistance more directly. The rigorous work routine she assumed soon took a heavy toll. Weil was found slumped on the floor of her apartment, emaciated and exhausted. In 1943, Weil

1328-409: A radical liberalism concerned with the role of the citizen in a democracy.  His was the first attempt at political engagement by a philosopher in the name of philosophy. A man of the left, but without any ideology, distrustful of ideology, he defends the rights of individuals and their freedom to think and act. The role of the citizen was summed up in a paradox: to both obey and resist: that is, obey

1411-611: A similar way, forty years later. Alain taught at the Lycée Henri IV , with an interruption for the First World War, until his retirement in 1933, having chosen not to pursue a Ph.D. and teach in the university system. In these years he gained a reputation as an inspiring teacher; his students included major philosophers such as Simone Weil and Georges Canguilhem , writers such as André Maurois , Julien Gracq , and Roger Judrin , and even great political leaders like Maurice Schuman ,

1494-473: A slower pace and in other journals, principally Libres Propos , in 1921 and continued until 1936, to make a total of around five thousand. They reached an even wider public by being collected in book form, some by subject, so there have been volumes of propos  on politics, education, religion, economics, nature, aesthetics, literature etc. The bestseller, a collection which has always remained in print in France

1577-410: A system; like most French philosophers of his generation he distrusted systems, even though, contrary to most of his colleagues, he did show a deep interest in studying systematic philosophers. He was an early (and quite unique) commentator of Hegel, a thorough and favourable critic of Hamelin, an admirer of Comte, three of the greatest systematic thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Despite

1660-474: A taste for firing arrows at passers-by to get them to look up from their path in life; he liked to provoke. And, as he himself wrote, by not thinking that philosophy was unsuitable for journalism, he invented a genre of journalism. To quote one admirer, the French Socialist leader Jean Jaurès , “the propos seem to me to be, in many respects, a masterpiece of French prose.” He began to write these again, at

1743-514: A variety of subjects.  The first works to be published were   Quatre-vingt un chapitres sur l’Esprit et les Passions, in 1917, and Système des Beaux-Arts ,  in 1920. In fact, he'd written two academic books before the war, before he had adopted his pseudonym: his thesis at the Ecole Normale  on the Stoics, and a published volume on Spinoza. The first major work of the post-war years

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1826-585: A young Weil sent her share of sugar and chocolate to soldiers fighting at the front. When Weil was 10 she joined striking workers chanting L'Internationale marching on the street below her apartment. When visiting a resort with her family and learning of the wages of the workers she encouraged the workers to unionize. From her childhood home, Weil acquired an obsession with cleanliness; in her later life she would sometimes speak of her "disgustingness" and think that others would see her this way, even though in her youth she had been considered highly attractive. Weil

1909-457: Is Propos sur le Bonheur (translated as Alain on Happiness) . As war approached Alain campaigned in his writing for peace in Europe, and when war did come, without compromising his views and aged forty-six, he volunteered immediately. As he wrote, he couldn't stand the idea of remaining in civilian life, while the 'best', who included his own pupils, were sent to be massacred. He was assigned to

1992-465: Is conceived as utter fullness, a perfect being, no creature can exist except where God is not. Thus, creation occurred only when God withdrew in part. This idea mirrors tzimtzum , a central notion in the Jewish Kabbalah creation narrative. This is, for Weil, an original kenosis ("emptiness") preceding the corrective kenosis of Christ's incarnation . Thus, according to her, humans are born in

2075-400: Is said to have created a "family atmosphere". She also took weekly visits to Saint-Étienne to teach workers French literature , believing literature could be a tool for revolution and give workers ownership over their heritage and revolution. Weil began to feel her work was too narrow and elite telling her students it was an error to "reason in place of finding out" and that philosophy was

2158-794: The German annexation of Alsace–Lorraine , and Salomea "Selma" Reinherz (1879–1965), who was born into a Jewish family in Rostov-on-Don and raised in Belgium . According to Osmo Pekonen , "the family name Weil came to be when many Levis in the Napoleonic era changed their names this way, by anagram." Weil was a healthy baby for her first six months but then suffered a severe attack of appendicitis ; thereafter, she struggled with poor health throughout her life. Weil's parents were fairly affluent and raised their children in an attentive and supportive atmosphere. She

2241-608: The Spanish Civil War to join the Republican faction . She identified as an anarchist , and sought out the anti-fascist commander Julián Gorkin , asking to be sent on a mission as a covert agent to rescue the prisoner Joaquín Maurín . Gorkin refused, saying Weil would be sacrificing herself for nothing since it was highly unlikely that she could pass as a Spaniard. Weil replied that she had "every right" to sacrifice herself if she chose, but after arguing for more than an hour, she

2324-525: The trade union movement, taking the side of the anarchists known as the Durruti Column in the Spanish Civil War , and spending more than a year working as a labourer, mostly in car factories, so that she could better understand the working class . Weil became increasingly religious and inclined towards mysticism as her life progressed. She wrote throughout her life, although most of her writings did not attract much attention until after her death. In

2407-660: The working class . In 1915, when she was only six years old, she refused sugar in solidarity with the troops entrenched along the Western Front . In 1919, at 10 years of age, she declared herself a Bolshevik . In her late teens, she became involved in the workers' movement. She wrote political tracts, marched in demonstrations and advocated workers' rights. At this time, she was a Marxist , pacifist and trade unionist . While teaching in Le Puy , she became involved in local political activity, supporting local striking workers underpaid by

2490-499: The 1940s associated with Sartre , de Beauvoir and Camus . He had a sophisticated theory of perception, influenced by Kant and Lagneau, that emphasized the role of the mind in perception, that the world is only grasped through ideas. And also a theory of the imagination, for which Alain claimed some originality and with which Sartre engaged in both L’Imagination (1936) and   L’Imaginaire (1940).  His later works, principally Les Dieux, discussed religion. Though no longer

2573-575: The 1950s and '60s, her work became famous in continental Europe and throughout the English-speaking world . Her thought has continued to be the subject of extensive scholarship across a wide range of fields. The mathematician André Weil was her brother. Weil was born in her parents' apartment in Paris on 3 February 1909, the daughter of Bernard Weil (1872–1955), a medical doctor from an agnostic Alsatian Jewish background, who moved to Paris after

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2656-532: The Benedictine Solesmes Abbey and while suffering from headaches she found pure joy in Gregorian chant that she felt the "possibility of living divine love in the midst of affliction". She was attracted to Catholicism , but declined to be baptized at that time, preferring to remain outside due to "the love of those things that are outside Christianity". While deeply religious, Weil was skeptical of

2739-477: The Church and dogma as an institution stating "I have not the slightest love for the Church in the strict sense of the word" and was appalled by the concept of Anathema Sit as she refused to separate herself from unbelievers. Weil felt that humility is incompatible with belonging to a social group "chosen by God" no matter if that group is a nation or a Church. Weil did not limit her curiosity to Christianity. She

2822-487: The City Council. Weil joined protest marches with them and even shared wine with them facing criticism from local elites and facing an antisemitic attack in a local paper. When the school director called Weil in for questioning, students and coworkers rallied behind her and ultimately the city council raised the pay of the workers. Weil often held classes outdoors, often refused to share grades with school leadership, and

2905-626: The General Suppression of Political Parties. Yet there is now evidence that Weil was recruited by the Special Operations Executive , with a view to sending her back to France as a clandestine wireless operator. In May 1943, preparations were underway to send her to Thame Park in Oxfordshire for training, but the plan was cancelled soon after, as her failing health became known. Weil wrote furiously during this period sending

2988-521: The artillery where he served conscientiously as a telephonist on the front lines, and refused promotion to the officer ranks. In 1916 his ankle was crushed in the wheel of a cart carrying munitions to Verdun. After several weeks in hospital and an unsuccessful return to the front, he  was transferred to the meteorological service and then demobbed in October 1917. While convalescing he began to write again, this time more substantial works. The first of these

3071-672: The century’. Through the thirties Alain was politically active as a prominent pacifist; in 1934 he was a co-founder of the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascists. After retirement from teaching, many publications followed, with books published every year. But he was also struggling against illness, which confined him to a wheelchair, as the second world war started. His spirits revived with his marriage in December 1945 to Gabrielle Landormy, twenty years his junior, and with whom he had fallen in love nearly forty years before. In his youth Alain

3154-429: The contrary, Weil claims that "evil is the form which God's mercy takes in this world". Weil believed that evil, and its consequent affliction, serve the role of driving humans towards God, writing, "The extreme affliction which overtakes human beings does not create human misery, it merely reveals it." Weil developed the concept of "affliction" ( French : malheur ) while working in factories with workers reduced to

3237-625: The country, to recuperate in Assisi . About a month after her departure, Weil's unit was nearly wiped out at an engagement in Perdiguera in October 1936, with every woman in the group being killed. During her stay in the Aragon front, Weil sent some chronicles to the French publication Le Libertaire , and on returning to Paris, she continued to write essays on labour , on management , war , and peace . Weil

3320-427: The disadvantaged. From her late teenage years, Weil would generally disguise her "fragile beauty" by adopting a masculine appearance, hardly ever using makeup and often wearing men's clothes. Both Weil's parents referred to her as “our son number two,” at the request of Weil, and in letters to her parents while a student, she used the masculine form of French participles and signed her name the masculine "Simon". Weil

3403-497: The exam for the certificate of "General Philosophy and Logic" with Simone de Beauvoir finishing second. In 1931 Weil earned her DES ( diplôme d'études supérieures  [ fr ] , roughly equivalent to an M.A. ), with a thesis titled, "Science et perception dans Descartes" ("Science and Perception in Descartes"). She received her agrégation that same year. She often became involved in political action out of sympathy with

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3486-509: The first of three pivotal religious experiences: being moved by the beauty of villagers singing hymns in a procession she stumbled across while on holiday to Portugal (in Póvoa de Varzim ). Weil the later wrote "the conviction was suddenly borne in upon her that Christianity is pre-eminently the religion of slaves, that slaves cannot help belonging to it, and she among others." While in Assisi during

3569-574: The full depth of affliction—the same souls that are also most able to experience spiritual joy. Weil's notion of affliction is a sort of "suffering plus" which transcends both body and mind, a physical and mental anguish that scourges the very soul. The better we are able to conceive of the fullness of joy, the purer and more intense will be our suffering in affliction and our compassion for others. ... Suffering and enjoyment as sources of knowledge. The serpent offered knowledge to Adam and Eve. The sirens offered knowledge to Ulysses. These stories teach that

3652-686: The head and say no.” A humanist Cartesian, he is an ‘awakener of the mind’, passionate for liberty. Gallimard's Pléiade series has published four collections: There is a complete edition of Les Propos d’un Normand covering the years 1906 to 1914, in nine volumes, published by the Institut Alain, 1990–2001 The Gods, 1974, New York, New Directions, and 1975, London, Chatto and Windus. Republished 1988, London, Quartet. A translation of Les Dieux by Richard Pevear Alain on happiness , 1973, New York, Ungar, republished 1989. A translation of Propos sur le bonheur by Robert D. and Jane E. Cottrell. Mars, or

3735-472: The laboring masses to their death, but which does not possess any content". Weil felt oppression was not limited to any particular division of labor but flows from la puissance or power which affects all people. In 1932, Weil visited Germany to help Marxist activists who were at the time considered to be the strongest and best organised communists in Western Europe, but Weil considered them no match for

3818-461: The larger part of his "Canticle of Brother Sun". Below the town in the valley is the ugliest church in the entire environs: the massive baroque basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, finished in the seventeenth century and rebuilt in the nineteenth century, which houses a rare treasure: a tiny Romanesque chapel that stood in the days of Saint Francis—the "Little Portion" where he would gather his brethren. It

3901-418: The laws but resist power by all legitimate means. Alain remained a firm defender of democracy; on the international front, he was an untiring defender of peace. This emphasis on individual freedom runs throughout his writing. “I have not thought about anything as much as about freedom of judgement”. He liked the play on words in French of ‘penser, c’est peser’ – to think is to weigh. This can be expanded through

3984-454: The military draft. For these reasons she was called the "Red Virgin", and even "The Martian" by her mentor. Weil gained a reputation for her strict devotion to ethics, with classmates referring to her as the " categorical imperative in skirts". Officials at the school were outraged by her indifference to clothing, her refusal to participate in their traditions, and her ignoring a rule banning women from smoking with male students, for which she

4067-447: The personnel of the sanatorium at which Simone Weil was treated, Pétrement affirms that Weil asked for food on different occasions while she was hospitalized and even ate a little bit a few days before her death; according to her, it was, in fact, Weil's poor health condition that eventually made her unable to eat. Weil's first English biographer, Richard Rees , offers several possible explanations for her death, citing her compassion for

4150-547: The philosopher Jules Lagneau. His exceptional intelligence led him to the Ecole Normale Supérieure in 1889, and to the agrégation in philosophy in 1892. This qualified him for a career as a teacher of philosophy, which he pursued in schools in Lorient, Rouen, Paris and, in particular, the Lycée Henri IV from 1909, where he taught the prestigious preparatory classes to the Ecole Normale. Sartre's career would begin in

4233-403: The presence of his closely argued philosophical books, Alain is perhaps best placed in a tradition of French thinkers like Montaigne and Pascal . This comparison, favoured by André Maurois , was vigorously challenged by Georges Canguilhem who saw in this a way of denying “Alain his dignity as a philosopher.”  In the end, Alain's thought is a typically modern one, which expresses itself in

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4316-449: The radical party in Rouen, he began contributing brief columns to the party's newspaper, La Depêche de Rouen et de Normandie. He called them propos , a difficult word to translate; it implies a proposal, a proposition and, most simply, remarks. In 1906 and after his move to Paris Alain made writing these a daily commitment and one he continued right up to the outbreak of the First World War. By

4399-575: The risky work of delivering the Cahiers du témoignage, a resistance paper. The resistance group of which Weil was part was infiltrated by informants and Weil was questioned by the police. When the police threatened to jail her “with the whores” if she did not give them information, Weil stated she would welcome the invitation to be jailed. Weil was ultimately never arrested. Marseilles is also where Weil would soon develop significant religious relationships, receiving spiritual direction from Joseph-Marie Perrin,

4482-408: The soul is lost through seeking knowledge in pleasure. Why? Pleasure is perhaps innocent on condition that we do not seek knowledge in it. It is permissible to seek that only in suffering. Andr%C3%A9 Comte-Sponville André Comte-Sponville (born 12 March 1952) is a French philosopher . André Comte-Sponville was born in Paris , France. He studied in the École Normale Supérieure and earned

4565-480: The spring of 1937, Weil experienced a religious ecstasy in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli —the same church in which Saint Francis of Assisi had prayed. She was led to pray for the first time in her life as Lawrence S. Cunningham relates: Below the town is the beautiful church and convent of San Damiano where Saint Clare once lived. Near that spot is the place purported to be where Saint Francis composed

4648-436: The suffering of her countrymen in occupied France and her love for and close imitation of Christ. Rees sums up by saying: "As for her death, whatever explanation one may give of it will amount in the end to saying that she died of love." Absence is the key image for her metaphysics , cosmology , cosmogony , and theodicy . She believed that God created by an act of self-delimitation—in other words, she argued that because God

4731-542: The then up-and-coming fascists. When she returned to France, her political friends there dismissed her fears, thinking Germany would continue to be controlled by the centrists or by those to the left. After Hitler rose to power in 1933, Weil spent much of her time trying to help German communists fleeing his regime. Weil would sometimes publish articles about social and economic issues, including "Oppression and Liberty," as well as numerous short articles for trade union journals. This work criticised popular Marxist thought and gave

4814-470: The thought that a Jew doesn’t have all these rights.” It's not surprising that, as a philosopher, he became aware of his prejudice;  it was a weakness to be overcome, not a prejudice upon which to act. There is no trace of anti-Semitism in his published writings. Alain died June 2, 1951, in his home on the outskirts of Paris. He is buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery . Alain did not develop

4897-504: The time he wrote the last, in the train on his way to join his regiment, he’d written over three thousand.  These short texts, written for a general readership and in a concise and vivid style, with striking sentences and aphorisms, soon attracted a loyal following. They were inspired by topical and everyday events; at first, he commented mainly on politics, but his philosophy and wide interests also became starting points for these improvisations. As Alain put it later, he found that he had

4980-582: The truth about war , 1930, London; Toronto: Jonathan Cape. A poor translation of Mars by Doris Mudie and Elizabeth Hill, with an introduction by André Maurois. There have been two biographies: Studies of his work include: A bibliography : Petheram Michel, A bibliography of the philosopher Alain in English Articles in these reference books: Simone Weil Simone Adolphine Weil ( / ˈ v eɪ / VAY ; French: [simɔn adɔlfin vɛj] ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943)

5063-432: The victims of the war. Others think that Weil's self-starvation occurred after her study of Arthur Schopenhauer . In his chapters on Christian saintly asceticism and salvation, Schopenhauer had described self-starvation as a preferred method of self-denial. However, Simone Pétrement, one of Weil's first and most significant biographers, regards the coroner's report as simply mistaken. Basing her opinion on letters written by

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5146-442: The visibly Christian ones to deliver me into Christ's hands as his captive. I think I might even say more. Nevertheless, Weil was opposed to religious syncretism , claiming that it effaced the particularity of the individual traditions: Each religion is alone true, that is to say, that at the moment we are thinking of it we must bring as much attention to bear on it as if there were nothing else ... A "synthesis" of religion implies

5229-538: The working class. In 1935, she began teaching in Bourges and started Entre Nous , a journal that was produced and authored by factory workers. Weil donated most of her income to political causes and charitable endeavours. Weil participated in the 1936 Paris factory occupations and planned on returning to factory work In 1936 but became focused on the Spanish Civil War. Despite her professed pacifism , she travelled to

5312-479: Was Les Idées et les Ages, published in two volumes in 1926. Apart from the several collections of propos , there followed many books, including works on philosophy, Plato, Stendhal, Balzac, and Charles Dickens. In 1934 came a second major work, on religion, Les Dieux (translated as The Gods ), followed two years late by his intellectual autobiography, Histoire de mes pensées .  André Comte-Sponville has described his later work as ‘the finest prose of ideas of

5395-419: Was Mars ou la guerre jugée ( translated as Mars, or the truth about war) , published in 1921. In this he wrote that what he felt most strongly about the war was the slavery it led to, the scorn of officers for the ordinary soldiers, treating them as animals; the army was a huge machine aimed at keeping men in obedience for organised slaughter. This wartime writing was the beginning of a prolific output and over

5478-439: Was a French philosopher , mystic , and political activist . Since 1995, more than 5,000 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work. After her graduation from formal education, Weil became a teacher. She taught intermittently throughout the 1930s, taking several breaks because of poor health and in order to devote herself to political activism . Such work saw her assisting in

5561-594: Was a precocious student and was proficient in Ancient Greek by age 12. She later learned Sanskrit so that she could read the Bhagavad Gita in the original. As a teenager, Weil studied at the Lycée Henri IV under the tutelage of her admired teacher Émile Chartier , more commonly known as "Alain". Weil attracted much attention at the Lycée Henri IV with her radical opinions and actions such as organising against

5644-499: Was a supporter of Dreyfus ; he had many Jewish friends and pupils. Yet, when in 2018 his Journal Inédit 1937-1950 was published, a highly selective reading identified certain remarks as being anti-Semitic and, further, led to the accusation that Alain was himself an anti-Semite. Some of these remarks do now make uncomfortable reading, but they also need to be understood in context. As Alain wrote in 1938 “I would like to rid myself of anti-Semitism, but I can’t achieve this” (28/1/38). He

5727-489: Was born into a secular household and raised in "complete agnosticism". As a teenager, she considered the existence of God for herself and decided nothing could be known either way. In her Spiritual Autobiography , however, Weil records that she always had a Christian outlook, taking to heart from her earliest childhood the idea of loving one's neighbour. Weil was attracted to the Christian faith beginning in 1935, when she had

5810-464: Was diagnosed with tuberculosis and instructed to rest and eat well. However, she refused special treatment because of her long-standing political idealism and her detachment from material things. Instead, she limited her intake to what she believed residents of German-occupied France ate. She most likely ate even less, as she refused on most occasions. It is possible that she was baptized during this period. Her condition quickly deteriorated, and she

5893-458: Was distressed by the Republican killings in eastern Spain, particularly when a fifteen-year-old Falangist was executed after he had been taken prisoner and Durruti had spent an hour trying to persuade him to change his political position before giving him until the next day to decide. Weil was deeply concerned by the intoxication of war where humans learn they can kill without punishment stating "I

5976-540: Was generally highly affectionate, but she almost always avoided any form of physical contact, even with female friends. Weil's mother stated that her daughter much preferred boys to girls, and that she always did her best to teach her daughter what she believed were masculine virtues. According to her friend and biographer, Simone Pétrement, Weil decided early in life that she would need to adopt masculine qualities and sacrifice opportunities for love affairs in order to fully pursue her vocation to improve social conditions for

6059-525: Was horrified, but not surprised by the war crimes. I felt the possibility of doing the same - and it's precisely because I felt I had that potential that I was horrified." After the rise of Nazi Germany Weil renounced pacifism. Weil stated that, "non-violence is good only if it's effective," and she became committed to fighting the Nazi regime, even if it required force. After German attacks on France, Weil left Paris with her family and fled to Marseilles. Weil began

6142-438: Was in that tiny chapel that the great mystic Simone Weil first felt compelled to kneel down and pray. Weil had a third, more powerful, revelation a year later while reciting George Herbert 's poem Love III , after which "Christ himself came down and took possession of me", and, from 1938 on, her writings became more mystical and spiritual , while retaining their focus on social and political issues. In 1938 Weil visited

6225-541: Was influenced by some of Weil's thought. In 1933, Weil was dismissed from a teaching job in Auxerre and transferred to Roanne . Weil participated in the French general strike of 1933, called to protest against unemployment and wage cuts. The following year, she took a 12-month leave of absence from her teaching position to work incognito as a labourer in two factories, one owned by Alstom and one by Renault , believing that this experience would allow her to connect with

6308-547: Was interested in other religious traditions—especially the Greek and Egyptian mysteries ; Hinduism (especially the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita ); and Mahayana Buddhism . She believed that all these and other traditions contained elements of genuine revelation, writing: Greece, Egypt, ancient India, the beauty of the world, the pure and authentic reflection of this beauty in art and science...these things have done as much as

6391-580: Was moved to a sanatorium at Grosvenor Hall in Ashford, Kent . After a lifetime of battling illness and frailty, Weil died in August 1943 from cardiac failure at the age of 34. The coroner's report said that "the deceased did kill and slay herself by refusing to eat whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed". The exact cause of her death remains a subject of debate. Some claim that her refusal to eat came from her desire to express some form of solidarity toward

6474-443: Was one of the first to identify a new form of oppression not anticipated by Marx, where élite bureaucrats could make life just as miserable for ordinary people as did the most exploitative capitalists. Weil critiqued Marxist theorists stating "they themselves have never been cogs in the machinery of factory". Weil also doubted aspects of revolution stating revolution is a word for "which you kill, for which you die, for which you send

6557-414: Was suspended. At ENS, Weil briefly met Simone de Beauvoir , and their meeting led to disagreement. Weil stated that, "one thing alone mattered in the world today: the revolution that would feed all people on earth," with a young Beauvoir replying that the point of life was to find meaning, not happiness. Weil cut her off, stating that, "it's easy to see you've never gone hungry". Weil finished first in

6640-549: Was the younger of her parents' two children. Her brother was mathematician André Weil (1906–1998), with whom she would always enjoy a close relationship. Weil was distressed by her father having to leave home for several years after being drafted to serve in the First World War . Eva Fogelman , Robert Coles and several other scholars believe that this experience may have contributed to the exceptionally strong altruism which Weil displayed throughout her life. For example,

6723-453: Was to shoot with her rifle at a bomber during an air raid; in a second raid, she tried to operate the group's heavy machine gun , but her comrades prevented her, as they thought it would be best for someone less clumsy and near-sighted to use the weapon. After being with the group for a few weeks, she burnt herself over a cooking fire. She was forced to leave the unit, and was met by her parents who had followed her to Spain. They helped her leave

6806-494: Was unable to convince Gorkin to give her the assignment. Instead she joined the anarchist Durruti Column of the French-speaking Sébastien Faure Century , which specialised in high-risk "commando"-style engagements. As she was extremely nearsighted, Weil was a very poor shot, and her comrades tried to avoid taking her on missions, though she did sometimes insist. Her only direct participation in combat

6889-447: Was writing in a private journal, not for publication, a place to try out and reflect on his ideas. In 1943 he was able to make another remark that was not picked up by the commentators, “Fortunately anti-Semitism will finish … it’s unfortunate that I ever tolerated this cruel madness (19/9/1943), and in 1947: “In my eyes equality is like the air we breathe. There’s a huge injustice in even doubting equality of rights. And we must pounce upon

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