Simone Weil - Aj Click H03

 Who is Simone Weil? 

    Simone Weil was a French philosopher born in 1909. She was born to an agnostic Jewish family but later came to adopt Christian beliefs after having a religious unfolding. Weil was known for being a philosopher that showcased her ideas more through actions than her words even though her written works are still very popular. She was known for the "untimeliness" of her thoughts and studies. Weil focused her studies on human nature specifically on suffering. She started showcasing her ideas when she was very young (around 6 years of age) by denying sweets as a protest for the French troops who weren't allowed to have sweets as part of their rations. She was quoted to have decided to pursue her vocation in making the world know about the disadvantage she adopted a masculine appearance and gave up her opportunities for love affairs.  I have included a video that gives a very good introduction to general information about her. The video is a good guide to her as I dive deeper into her studies and ideas. 

What was Simone Weil known for? 

    Simone Weil was known for a variety of ideas and contributions to many topics such as Marxism and Individualism. She wrote many impactful pieces during her short life. Weil passed at age 34 and her teaching began to spread after her death as before she was not highly known outside of France. Weil wrote a book called Oppression and Liberty where her Marxist article is contained. In the article, she wrote about how the Soviet Union was not a worker's state despite all of its claims to be and the article startled many of the socialists at the time. Oppression and Liberty analyzes the labor oppression during the time as well as expands on many other topics related to the issue such as the Marxist doctrine, individual freedom, and the revolutionary responses to the problem. She then left her work to start her journey of studying and taking part in the manual labor jobs of the time. 

Simone's time in the factories.

    Simone Weil spent her time studying the oppression of others and gave up her opportunities to follow her vocation. Simone Weil was highly intelligent and well-educated but decided to leave her teaching position to work in a factory. Many people wonder why she would do this as it is what led to her death, and it is because she wanted to feel how it felt to do the things the people of the time were doing because to truly understand something in her eyes you had to feel it and understand its roots. Karl Marx is a good example of someone whom she wrote and talked about, but she would say he could have been wrong about his predictions because he never lived them even if he "identified" with them he would never understand how it felt to be them. Weil decided to do this to understand the working culture within the factories as it was highly oppressive during this time. The people would work long hours with little pay and high risks. She left her career and got a job working at a factory so that she could fully develop her ideas surrounding the workplace without being based on readings and economics so that the truth could be told about the issues from an inside perspective. She described her time in the factories as soul-crushing. She spent 28 weeks working in the factories to learn and advocate for the workers in terms that directly linked with the issues they faced. She worked, lived, and ate the way the workers did all while still trying to get the world to understand the issues they were causing. Her time in the factories helped her develop her political activism and her philosophy of roots and attention that developed from her philosophy of oppression and suffering. Weil believed the first casualty of the factory was the act of thinking; she said that exhaustion kills the process of thought which is the one and only way to stop the pain of the factory. Weil believed that the only way that people will ever be free is when we as people "understand oppression the way we understand that gravity causes the stone to drop." 

Summary of the video: The video talks about a conversation the speaker has with a stranger about his current favorite philosopher (Simone Weil). He then goes on to describe her work her time in the factories and her ideas about being rooted. 

What is Simone Weil remembered/known as?

    Simone Weil is a philosopher remembered for many things and ideas. She is remembered for her very empathic thinking and her inability to live outside of her ideas. She was known for not seeking attention but calling for attention to the issues at hand. Weil was known for her raggedy looks and seemingly unkept hair, but also immense compassion for others. She was a very critical thinker and thought about the world in ways many could not. She did things that many denoted as "crazy" because they could not understand her methods of study and needed to understand the everyday person. In LH (125), Setiya states, "If there are models of what it would be to take injustice and human suffering seriously, to make no excuse for oneself, there is none better than Simone Weil," Setiya then goes on to talk about her methods and how no one would do the thing that Weil did with her life with their life because it is simply terrifying. Setiya because Weil in a very beautiful way; he highlights her practices critically and states how they are terrifying to people, but he doesn't criticize her methods the way some do. I deeply enjoyed reading the chapter (Injustice) that covered her and the work she did. She is remembered as a valuable member of the philosophy community. Her death is often referred to as a death of love due to her immense compassion and empathy for others. 

My personal thoughts and closing words?

    As shown in my writing about Weil, I find her work very inspiring and impactful. She had a beautiful soul that not many can have. She fought for the rights of others asking for nothing in return other than that attention be paid to the issue of society. Weil believed and lived her philosophy deeply, and I find that beautiful and aspire to be someone like that. I liked her connections to Marx's philosophy of oppression and how she thought about it in a more societal way than his analytical logical way.

She truly enveloped her ideas whereas he simply read and studied the issues while never fully understanding the way the person lived and felt. To answer my discussion questions for the presentation:

1. How do you feel about her philosophy of attention? Do you believe the idea of the quality of attention determines the quality of life? 

        - I liked her ideas surrounding attention. She wanted to reflect on the issues at hand and often created practices to invoke this process in her students. She believed that to truly pay attention to something you must dilate the mind to be prepared to take in the information. I think the quality of attention does reflect the quality of life; if you don't truly pay attention in life, you lose the value of the things around you which causes you to lose love and understanding in life. She thought about attention in a very complex way which heavily reflects her desires in her work and the true gravity of her drive to understand the world. 

2. How do you feel about her ideas surrounding suffering?

        - I believe her ideas surrounding suffering are very important to fully understand the idea and philosophy of suffering. While I believe you can still understand an issue without directly living or experiencing it, you never fully understand the issue in the way the person who has will which I think is a very important distinguishment she makes in her writings and methods. She both lived and studied the issues she saw to draw people's attention to it. Even though most people would never do what she did, I think we all can learn the importance of making that distinction.   

3. Do you think Simone Weil is the model of taking social injustice seriously? Why or why not?

        - I think she is a beautiful example of taking injustice seriously. She not only lived and studied the issues that interested her but also advocated heavily for those same issues. While I don't want people to directly harm themselves while performing their studies, I find it highly admirable that she risked her life doing what she believed had to be done to understand and better the situations people going through.  

    Simone Weil is someone I now find very admirable and will be referencing and looking more into her and her studies in the future. I hope to implement some of her ideas into my life as I believe her ideas flow well with my personal beliefs and hopes for the future.