The Philosophy of Simone Weil

Simone Weil was a trained philosopher and a teacher of philosophy. She was a political theorist and activist, a revolutionary, a laborer in the French fields and factories and toward the end of he life, she was a mystic. She believed in the transcendent powers of God. Much of her writing dealt with the ways in which God touches our lives, and the ways we can "find" or open ourselves to him. In her works, she spent a good deal of time defining and describing terms such as beauty and affliction, and describing solutions to social ills.

First and foremost it is important to understand the relationship the Weil had with God. She had many mystical experiences in her life in which she walked and talked with God. One of these experiences in particular is described in volume two of her notebooks in a brief essay called "Come With Me." In this essay she recounts a story in which God comes and visit her. He takes her up to the attic of a church where they live for three days, eating only bread and drinking only water. But she had interesting notions about him and his existence; not notions that would seem consistent with having met with him. She explains that God is "everything that we are not" (Little, p. 57 ). But she goes on to say that we can never speak of a true God because he is something that we have no capability of grasping. Following Taoism, she says she believes that God represents "the Way"; that he is not embodied in "the personal anthropomorphisized aspect of the Western inclination." (Little, p. 57) She felt very strongly that we could not know of his existence, but that he was there, that at times we should pray to him, even while wondering if he really exists. She says that "faced with two men who have no experience with god, the one who denies his existence is probably closer to the truth." (Little, p. 58 )

Weil says:

" Our soul is constantly clamorous with noise, but there is one point in it which is silence, and which we never hear. When the silence of God comes into the soul and penetrates it and joins the silence which is secretly present in us , from then on we have our treasure and our heart in God; there are only two things piercing enough to penetrate our souls in this way; they are affliction and beauty."

"Beauty. Impossible to define it psychologically, because of the fullness of the aesthetic contemplation. (Panichas, p. 421, 422)

In referring to nature's beauty, she says,

" Matter is not beautiful when it obeys man, but only when it obeys God. The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know ships have wrecked on it. On the contrary, this adds to its beauty. If it altered the movement of its waves to spare a ship it would be a creature gifted with discernment and choice, and not this fluid, perfectly obedient to every external pressure. It i its perfect obedience which makes the seas beauty." (Panichas, p. 448)

An adequate reading of nature can cause a person to be powerfully, but jofully, gripped by God's loving presence. "Beauty is perfect order. (Panichas, p.422) That order can be grasped by the intellect and the necessity understood. Its order is beautiful to both our intellect an our senses. Because beauty is the result of the way brute force is ordered in the cosmos, the intersection of beauty and pain is where truth can be found." (Allen, p. 152)

Art is another place where we ca find beauty in our society. Although Weil discredited imagination as a possible route to enlightenment, she admitted that poetry was a special form that could possible lead to truth, and that artists could be touched by God. She often recited George Herbert's poem "Love". She used it as a mantra in her meditation, especially during the times when she was suffering from severe migraines and ear infections. It was while reciting this poem in wretched pain that Weil was first visited by a supernatural good. It was this poem, this combination of beauty and good, Weil to break through to a domain above the intellect.

Although Weil discredits art as a path to the truth, she says "If sometimes in a work of art it seems almost as beautiful as in the sea, or in the mountains or in the flowers it is because the light of God has filled the artist." ( Panichas, p.449) She says that men are unable to read exactly what the work of art is saying, an like wise it is unimportant. What is important is what our soul comprehends. We take away the feeling that shines through the work; this is the order pleasing our soul, this is the light of God.

Another one of Weil's most fundamental ideas was that of affliction. To clarify, Weil differentiates affliction from pain and suffering. She says that pain is merely physical, and that suffering is both physical and mental, but that "affliction is the pulverization of the soul" (Panichas, p. 462 ). She says that "affliction by its nature is inarticulate" (Panichas, p.327) and that "human thought is unable to acknowledge the e reality of affliction" ( Panichas, p. 332) "It takes possession of the soul and marks it through and through." (Panichas, p. 439) "There is not real affliction unless the event has gripped and uprooted a life attacks it...in all parts, social, psychological and physical. At the very best, he who is branded by affliction will only keep half his soul." ( Panichas, p. 441)

Affliction is also a time when we have the chance to be the closest to God, but in a round about way.

"Affliction causes God to be absent for a time, more absent than a dead man... during this absence there is nothing to love... but the soul has to go on loving in the void or at least go on wanting to love... Then, one day, God will come to show himself to this soul....as in the case of Job." (Panichas, p. 442)

"From the beginning of her early writings, until the end of her life, she was preoccupied with the problem concerning a non-opressive form of civilization." (McFarland, p. 6) Throughout her life she had an obsession with what she referred to as "real life". To her real life meant "a joyful encounter with the harsh realities of matter. And a direct encounter of the mind with the necessities of the physical world, but also the mind's triumph over the forces that wear down the body and spirit." She created this environment for herself by working in a factory. Here she found that she could work with 'real people', who knew what it was like to be absolutely exhausted and weary and mentally worn down at the end of every day. She said she enjoyed it because,

"Goodness in a factory is something real; because the least act of kindness, from a mere smile to some little service, calls for a victory over fatigue and the obsession with pay." ( Mcfarland, p. 18)

One of the things she says about society in general is that is has been destroyed by the struggles for power.

"The root of the problem of social oppression is the struggle for power over man. But because of the nature of human beings, power over them will never be stable. The race for power enslaves everybody, strong and weak alike." ( McFarland, p. 50)

"Human beings are naturally unequal in their capacities... and the only foundation for absolute equality of respect is something shared equally among men, namely, the desire for good. (Good meaning God) (Kenny, p. 4) She goes on to say that the "most fully human civilization would be that which had manual labor as its pivot, that in which manual labor constituted the supreme value. I t would constitute for each human being what he was most essentially in need of if his life is to take on of itself a meaning and a value in his own eyes." (Allen, p. 56)

"Necessity" and "Good" are two terms that were very common in books of criticism of Simone Weil, but there were not actually very common in her work. The good represents God. In Weil's view it should be the single unifying force in man, and it should tie our society together. Necessity is a more complex idea. "It involves several sorts of relations between the created world and God. It represents the natural forces surrounding the world." (Allen, p. 33,34) "There are varying degrees of necessity. Everything is necessary in some degree if its loss really causes a decrease in vital energy." (Panichas, p. 368) These are two important underlying themes throughout her works. She says the only way to get in touch with necessity is by contact with the real world, which she found for herself through her work in the factories.

Biography

Simone Weil was born in Paris on February 3, 1909, to Mne and Dr. Bernard Weil. She was the second child, three years younger than her brother Andre, whom she was close to all of her life. The family was relatively well off but when the WWII began, their lives began to take repaid turns. Dr. Weil was assigned a field medical position, and had to move away. Mne Weil decided that she would do anything to keep the family together, so they all pack up and followed Dr. Weil around France each time he was transferred.

The atmosphere of Simone's childhood was greatly influenced by the war. In their home, Mne Weil inspired a very self-sacrificial climate. Andre and Simone were encouraged to give up their sweets and chocolate rations so that they could donate them to the children of families who were living behind the front lines. Even as a young child Simone showed her great empathy toward the soldiers. Not only did she readily give up her rations of sweets and chocolate, but she often raised money and bought small gifts for the family that the Weil's adopted. The war

"was probably the primary cause of her obsession with suffering and affliction. A a child she was in close proximity of the war and was protected from it. All her life she wanted to break through the protective barriers that separate her from the suffering experienced by those directly in the war." (McFarland, p. 12)

Simone was born into a Jewish family, but they were not practicing Jews, and in fact Simone did not even know she was Jewish until she was ten years old. Throughout her life considered herself Catholic. This was often a matter of controversy because she was never baptized. She claimed that she did not believe in the traditional rituals and felt that her prayer was proof enough of her faith.

She and her brother Andre were considered geniuses early in their lives. At age six, Simone's favorite author was Cyrano de Bergerac. Andre's intelligence was in the mathematical/ logical domain and Simone often paralleled his childhood with that of Pascal. Because their domains were so different, Simone assumed that she was not a genius. During her adolescent years, which she referred to as "a time of bottomless despair." (McFarland, p. 16) She was convinced that she would be closed out of the kingdom of truth forever because she was not a genius. It was when she was fourteen that she finally came to the conclusion that "any human being can penetrate the kingdom of truth, if only he longs for truth and perpetually concentrates all of his attention upon its attainment." (McFarland, p. 16)

When she was fifteen, she decided that she wanted to be a teacher of philosophy, and she applied to Lycee Henri-IV. At this school she was a student of Alain (Emile Chartier), who would be as close to a mentor as Weil would find in her lifetime. Alain noticed Simone's prodigal potentialities and helped guide her in her readings and the clarification of her ideas. During these years she also begun delving into her interest in political and social issues and her desire for factory work.

When she was twenty-one, she began having horrible migraine headaches. These were very debilitating to her and the cause was unknown throughout her life (although now it is though that she had sinusitis). Her life was spent writing about the war, and Hitler, and her experiences in factory work. When she was twenty-six she had her first spiritual experience in the Cathedral of St. Francis Assisi. She had more experiences when she was twenty-seven. Following these experiences was when most of her productivity took place. In April of 1943, she was admitted to Middlesex Hospital for treatment of her Tuberculosis. She remained strong in her desire to only eat the food rations like these distributed to the soldiers. Because of this she grew very weak, and it is said that she died, at age thirty-four, of Tuberculosis and hunger.

Seven Frames

In reference to Gardner's seven intelligences, Simone Weil fits into two, language and interpersonal, but she finds most of her 'power' through an area that Gardner does not specify; spirituality. She is definitely language oriented by sheer virtue of the amount of work she produced in her lifetime (although she did not consider it work, for she never intended to publish it). She was also interpersonal, but in a different sense than Gardner describes. On an intimate level, Weil was very difficult to be around. Although she was admired and respected, she was often made fun of as well. It was said that she had a way of "confronting you with you responsibilities" and most people did not like feeling as though the world was on their shoulders. (Little, p. 14) She had "a sort of interrogative avidity never encountered elsewhere" (Mcfarland, p. 2) It was also said that she held other people up to her standards and she often was disappointed in "what seemed to her to be an inconsistency or failing in her comrades." (MacFarland, p. 3) But in a more distant sense, she was extremely empathetic. She empathized with the factory workers, and so went to work with them. And during WWII, she only ate the rations that would be given to soldiers at he time. This led to a certain level of hunger and malnutrition that eventually led to her death.

Most clearly though, Simone Weil would have said that she was none of these things. She would have claimed that it was only because of her closeness with God that all of these things ever were written. She claimed that not only were her writing impersonal, but that she did not understand how or why they had chosen such an inadequate and defensive vehicle as herself for transmission. Her work did not, as it may seem at first, have any basis in the intrapersonal domain. Interestingly, not only did she not have an aptitude in the other intelligences, she was actually deficient in the rest of them. As a child she had large deficiencies in manual dexterity (bodily kinesthetic). This embarrassed and frustrated her. As a result she was unable to participate in music or art (painting) and became so frustrated with math and geography that her mother let her drop those classes in school. So in her youth, she had the opportunity to focus directly on literature, and later philosophy.

Gardner's Model

It is very difficult to compare Weil to Gardner's model of creative genius because her most predominant intelligence was that of the spiritual intelligence, for which Gardner creates no provisions. She had no creative breakthroughs, no ten year rule and no matrix of support. The closest she came to a mentor was Alain and her only hero was Plato, whom she felt also wrote about the common 'good'. She remained close with her brother, but he was rarely mentioned in texts. Simone did, however, have a Faustian Bargain. Her whole life was a Faustian Bargain. Beginning at a young age she was giving up food, a habit that she continued throughout her life. She gave up a comfortable living condition (she slept on the cold floor every night, with only one thin cover), and a family life to work in the factory. There was never any mention of friends, or a social life. To her, philosophy was a combination of thought and action, and it was something a person had to live, not just do as a job.

Her individual history, her experiences in her field and her domain, were mostly synchronous. Although her parents never prompted her political and social concern, the time period she was growing up in must have had a great influence. Let alone that she was living near the war for so long. Her inabilities in many subjects in school gave her the opportunity to focus on language and philosophy.

In her time she was also considered new and creative, an innovator. Diogenes Allen said,

"Simone Weil is notonly a religious outsider, she has been an outside in the philosophic community aswell... this is in part because the questions she discusses are far more broad than the questions usually examined...She was devoted to a transient good... Modern philosophies concerned with specifying what makes something right and with defending human rights." (p. 19)

Thomas Indinopolous called her "a hyper individual, she rejected easy answers provided by traditional authority...she was a seeker for the special personal knowledge that can save. A thinking artist." (p.147) And Dorothy Tuck Mcfarland said

"She was unique to the point of seeming alien. Weil was not only a critic of accepted ways of thinking, she was a builder...She was an independent thinker of genius- her insistence on questioning orthodoxies, her refusal to accept anything simply because it was the reigning opinion.. .placed her outside of the mainstream thinking." (p.5-8)

Many writers and poets of the Modern era respected and admired Simone Weil, and although this does not mean she contributed a creative innovation, I believe that she did. Holding her up to Gardner's model seems unfair, since we are dealing with someone who was concerned with a reality somewhere above our intellects. It is only fair to ask questions. Why did no one ever doubt that she had walked with God? With other frames of intelligence, it was easier to compare the person's work with other contemporary work, but in the case of spirituality, what can we compare it to? In struggling to find questions that would lead to answers, that would lead to a possibly new model, it seems hard to even know where to begin. I suppose this is an issue Gardner faced in the beginning of his search as well; the abyss of the unknown. But it is an area I am interested in, even more so that the other frames we have studied, and I look forward to thinking in these terms as I further my studies in philosophy and spirituality.

Bibliography

Allen, Diogenes and Springsted, Eric O. Spirit, Nature and Community. State University of New York Press. Albany, New York. 1994.

Indinoplulos, Thomas A. and Knoppzadorsky, Josephine. Mysticism, Nihilism, Feminism. Institute of Social Sciences and Arts. Johnson City, Tennessee. 1984.

Little, J.P. Simone Weil. St. Martin's Press. New York, New York. 1988.

McFarland, Dorothy Tuck. Simone Weil. Fredrick Unger Publishing Co. New York, New York. 1983.

Panichas, George A. (ed.) Simone Weil Reader. Moyer Bell Limited. Mt Kisco, New York.1977.