Simone Weil\u27s Spiritual Critique of Modern Science: An Historical-Critical Assessment

This paper evaluates Simone Weil\u27s philosophy and theology of science from the perspective of an historical phenomenology of science

Uninhabitable Words: Sarah Klassen and Simone Weil

Este article analitza el sext llibre de la poeta canadenca Sarah Klassen, Simone Weil: Songs of Hunger and Love (1999), una col•lecció de poemes i breus peces en prosa on l'autora presta la seua primera persona a Simone Weil, filòsofa francesa i mística recelosa del misticisme. Partint de la descripció de W.W Meissner del fet místic com inefable, intuïtiu i lliure de les coordenades d'espai i temps, argument que Weil no va participar d'esta experiència. Per un costat no va deixar d'escriure, com va fer Sant Tomàs d'Aquino després de la seua unió amb Déu. I, d'un altre, va tractar de creure en l'existència de Déu a partir de criteris ancorats en l'orde de la realitat. Klassen, no obstant això, obeint a la tradició mennonita en què s'educa, entra intuïtivament en Weil, convertint l'experiència de la francesa en una experiència mística i transformant-se, en el procés d'escriptura, en la mística que Weil no va ser.Este artículo analiza el sexto libro de la poeta canadiense Sarah Klassen, Simone Weil: Songs of Hunger and Love (1999), una colección de poemas y breves piezas en prosa donde la autora presta su primera persona a Simone Weil, filósofa francesa y mística recelosa del misticismo. Partiendo de la descripción de W.W. Meissner del hecho místico como inefable, intuitivo y libre de las coordenadas de espacio y tiempo, argumento que Weil no participó de esta experiencia. Por un lado, no dejó de escribir, como hizo santo Tomás de Aquino después de su unión con Dios. Y, por otro, trató de creer en la existencia de Dios a partir de criterios anclados en el orden de la realidad. Klassen, sin embargo, obedeciendo a la tradición menonita en la que se educa, entra intuitivamente en Weil, convirtiendo la experiencia de la francesa en una experiencia mística y transformándose, en el proceso de escritura, en la mística que Weil no fue.This essay examines Sarah Klassen’s sixth book, Simone Weil: Songs of Hunger and Love (1999), a collection of poems and brief prose pieces where the Canadian poet lends her first person to Simone Weil, French philosopher and mystic suspicious of mysticism. Following the lead of W.W. Meissner’s theory on the mystic act as ineffable, intuitive and free from space and time, I argue that Weil did not participate in the experience. On the one hand, she did not stop writing, as Thomas Aquinas did after his union with God. On the other hand, she tried to believe in God’s existence drawing upon criteria anchored in reality. Yet, Klassen, following up on the Mennonite tradition in which she was brought up, enters intuitively into Weil, transforming the latter’s experience into a mystic one and becoming, in the process of writing, a mystic herself

Simon Weil: the work and the spirit of freedom

El presente artículo quiere mostrar la estrecha relación y la importancia que tienen, en la obra de Simone Weil, las nociones de trabajo y de verdad. Lúcida testigo de los sucesos ocurridos en Europa en la primera mitad del siglo XX, su pensamiento supo desentrañar las raíces profundas de su tiempo, el vacío y las contradicciones de su época. La obra de Simone Weil representa una relectura del mundo marcada por la desgracia, en la que sobresale un anhelo de verdad íntimamente ligado al concepto de trabajo, en tanto que vínculo profundo del hombre con la realidad.The current article aims to show the close relationship and the importance of the notion of work and truth in the work of Simone Weil. Lucid witness of the events happened in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century, her thought knew unravel the deep roots of her time, the emptiness and the contradictions of her epoch. Simone Weil’s work represents a rereading of the world marked by her misfortune, in which a yearning for truth stands out closely linked to the concept of work, in so far as a deep link of the man with the reality

L’universalismo mistico di Simone Weil

In the last years of her short life, Simone Weil was deeply interested in non-Christian religions, especially those of ancient India. Since 1941, she began studying the Sanskrit language and reading the Upanishads, some of which she also tried to translate. In the Indian spirituality she found the path to understand some masterpieces of Christian mysticism, such as The mirror of simple souls by Marguerite Porete, which she read in London in an English version, ascribed to “an unknown French mystic”. Simone Weil recognized that all spiritual traditions, Hindu as well as Christian, agree with the essential mystical experience, the annihilation of the ego, so that the divine Light can enter the void made by man in his own soul (the so-called décreation), and so that everything can show the world’s wonderful beauty. However, she thought that Christianity was the spiritual heir to Heraclitus, of Platonism, and of stoicism, and expresses, in its mystical universalism , the best of every religious tradition

Un peu de matière sans forme. L’Eucharistie selon Simone Weil

The article Some shapeless matter. The Eucharist according to Simone Weil constitutes a hermeneutic approach of the Eucharistic reality which operates at two levels, thematic and textual. The examination consists in analyzing respectively both conceptions of the Eucharist (apparently reducing) developed by Simone Weil, namely that of the real agreement and that of the fragment of matter. The analysis ends in the discovery of a kerygmatic modality which authorizes and supports the paradoxical reasoning. Finally, within the framework of the fragmentary writing, the reflection aims at enlightening the relation between the Eucharist (bread) and the hermeneutics (word), based on the principle of allusion which replaces that of analogy

Ressenyes

Obra ressenyada: Fina BIRULÉS, Rosa RIUS GATELL (eds.), Lectoras de Simone Weil. Barcelona : Icaria, 201

La violencia de Occidente en el pensamiento de María Zambrano y de Simone Weil

Este artículo compara el pensamiento de María Zambrano con el de Simone Weil respecto al tema del origen religioso de la violencia en Occidente, atendiendo a la visión de la religiosidad auténtica y analizando la figura de Antígona.This article compares the thought of María Zambrano with that of Simone Weil with regard to the religious origin of the Western violence, with regard to the vision of true religion and with regard to Antigone’s character

María Zambrano y Simone Weil:notas para un diálogo

El presente artículo se propone indagar los lugares en los que María Zambrano se refiere a Simone Weil o dialoga con ella. Esos lugares (libros, biblioteca personal, correspondencia) permiten reflexionar acerca de los rasgos que comparten ambas pensadoras y, también, subrayar las evidentes consonancias que se manifiestan entre ellas. Atender a sus consonancias no supone en modo alguno negar sus disonancias, asimismo evidentes.This article intends to explore the places in which María Zambrano either refers to Simone Weil or sets up a dialogue with her. Those places (books, her personal library, her correspondence) allow to reflect on the traits shared by both thinkers and to emphasize their evident consonances. However, to pay attention to these consonances doesn’t at all imply that their non-less evident dissonances should be denied

Simone Weil : mystique chrétienne hors de l'Église

En 1938, Simone Weil a une expérience qu’elle qualifie – dans deux lettres datées de 1942 – de mystique, un contact direct avec Dieu. Notre article vise à montrer que sa philosophie théologique est fortement influencée par cette expérience ; d’abord en ce que c’est elle qui permet à Weil de définir Dieu comme amour et ensuite parce qu’une telle caractérisation de Dieu appelle une attitude bien particulière chez les hommes : la décréation. Notre article propose ensuite d’interroger la relation entre Weil et l’Église. Il s’agit donc ici de mettre en relief sa conception hétérodoxe du Christianisme et l’ascendance de celle-ci sur l’hésitation de Weil à demander le baptême

Michael Costanzo, A Genuine Mentor

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. Where the priests feed the flock committed to them both by their word and by their example the people are preserved from many errors. From Defense of the Catholic Priesthood by St. John Fisher (1525; translated by Philip Hallet, 1934) Father Michael Costanzo was a man who wore his learning lightly. He was constantly reading and reflecting. I had many fascinating conversations with him over the years regarding his views on such figures as Edith Stein, Vincent Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, and Simone Weil, all of whose complete works he had immersed himself in. He was eager to share what he had learned from them, and encouraged me to read them as well