"The Subversive Simone Weil": Robert Zaretsky in conversation with Lottie Moore
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 พ.ค. 2024
- Support us on Patreon: / thephilosophe. .
Known as the “patron saint of all outsiders,” Simone Weil was one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable thinkers, a philosopher who truly lived by her political and ethical ideals. In a short life framed by the two world wars, Weil taught philosophy to lycée students and organized union workers, fought alongside anarchists during the Spanish Civil War and laboured alongside workers on assembly lines, joined the Free French movement in London and died in despair because she was not sent to France to help the Resistance.
While many seekers have been attracted to Weil’s religious thought, Robert Zaretsky’s "The Subversive Simone Weil" gives us a different Weil, exploring her insights into politics and ethics, and showing us a new side of Weil that balances her contradictions - the rigorous rationalist who also had her own brand of Catholic mysticism; the revolutionary with a soft spot for anarchism yet who believed in the hierarchy of labour; and the humanitarian who emphasized human needs and obligations over human rights. In this conversation with philosopher of religion Lottie Moore, Zaretsky reflects on the relationship between thought and action in Weil’s life, and why her ideas matter and continue to fascinate readers today.
Robert Zaretsky is professor of French history in the University of Houston Honors College, and the Department of Modern and Classical Languages. He is the author of numerous books on thinkers including Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Albert Camus. His new book, "The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas", was published in February by Chicago University Press.
Lottie Moore studied Theology at Bristol University before completing an MA in Political Theology at Mansfield College, Oxford, where she focused on identity politics. She currently works at a policy institute leading a project on UK health inequality and at SOAS, where she looks at issues surrounding freedom of speech.
She took the war on herself in a time of war ___ the particularity of Weil's pacifism. She is one of the first who switched from the negative to the affirmative paradigm of being.
Wonderful talk!
This reminds me that I should pay my respects to Simone's resting place which is at Ashford - not far from me .
subscribed!
Her anti-colonialism and pacifism are so important. It is moral leadership, ideals that must be upheld. Such a rare figure and so needed. I just question Zaretsky somewhat mixed presentation. I just do not see the point of what reviewer Jacqueline Rose called his 'epithets'---just does not work for me. He obviously has deep understanding but did he have to call her a lunatic?
She starved herself because she was angry that the free French wouldn't let her parachute into occupied French Territory , It really seems like she was throwing a tantrum and killed herself like a very spoiled brat .
Lol nothing says ‘spoiled’ like devoting your entire life to multiple moral causes
@@thomasmurphy9429 She really did not devote herself to those " Moral causes " . Her position was an Act for the most part . First she realized that she couldn't teach the working class peasants to read and right and then she realized that even if the worker over threw the government that would not be able to run the government because they could not read or write. She repeatedly tried to get the workers to do things they didn't want to do and they fight her tooth and nail . She was very stubborn and she tried to force unwilling participants ( the workers) to do things they passionately did not want to do and had no interest in doing . She hated judaism because her parents were so arrogant about it and she hated the bourgeoise because they didn't give a damn about the working classes and who can blame her for hating this bourgeoise SNOBS .
Simone Weil was a poser for the most part. She hated her bourgeoise parents and their snobbishness . This made her passionately side with the working classes whom she felt sorry for . Her whole family hated the working classes and would spit on them and this really really bothered her .
?? how does that point make her a poser. she vehemently opposed the opinions and lives of her family, so she lived differently from them. being dissatisfied with/disgusted by your roots does not make you a poser lmao
Yes, sure, posers kill themselves following their false posture. MAKES SENSE. Oh dear...