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.
What is Simone Weil philosophy?
Weil’s work explores philosophy through the human condition, emphasizing that morality is an ingrained pillar of humanity. Many of her most notable philosophical beliefs are paradoxical; for example, her concept of decreation defines the individual’s purpose as to give up one’s existence.
Did Simone Weil marry?
Despite being attractive, Weil was convinced she was repellent and avoided physical contact wherever possible. Not surprisingly, she never married, never had children.
Is Simone Weil a saint?
Simone Weil in Versaille. August 23, 2002, will be the fifty-ninth anniversary of the death of Simone Weil, a French Jew revered by many Christians as an uncanonized saint.
Did Simone Weil convert to Christianity?
Born in France in 1909 to a middle-class Jewish family, Weil early on identified as Marxist. … By 1938 she had converted to Catholicism, and moved to England in 1942 to work for the French Resistance, where she died a year later, aged 34.
How does Weil define prayer?
In her essay “Reflections on the Right use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God” (1942 in WFG 57–65), Weil takes prayer, defined as “the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable toward God”, as her point of departure (WFG 57).
Is Simone Weil an existentialist?
The French philosopher Simone Weil is a confronting and disconcerting figure in modern philosophy. … She came to philosophy in the interwar years in a philosophical milieu of political radicalism, phenomenology, and emerging existentialism.
Did Plato get married?
Plato did not have children, and it is assumed based on textual evidence that he never married. He did have a number of siblings, however: three brothers, Glaucon, Antiphon, and Adeimantus of Collytus, and one sister, Potone.
Was Thomas Hobbes married?
Aquinas and the philosophers of the middle ages were all churchmen. In the 17th and 18th centuries, virtually all of the canonical figures were domestically unconventional. Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Adam Smith, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant and Bentham all went unmarried.
Did Nietzsche marry?
Maverick philosopher Frederick Nietzsche had some rather unconventional views about love and marriage. … By any account he had a singularly disastrous love life. Several of his marriage proposals were turned down and he ended his days lonely and insane.
Who said attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity?
The philosopher Simone Weil said, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” We would do well to give attention to our homes, families, co-workers and acquaintances and show this generosity abundantly.
How does Simone Weil define Force?
She proceeds to define force as that which turns anyone subjected to it into a thing – at worst, into a corpse. Weil discusses the emotional and psychological violence one suffers if forced to submit to force even when not physically hurt, holding up the slave and the supplicant as examples.
When did Simone Weil write gravity and grace?
Gravity and Grace (La pesanteur et la grâce) is collection of aphorisms written by Simone Weil and published posthumously in 1947. A sketch of the origins of the work is set out in “The Famous Book She Never Wrote” (2020).
What does Simone Weil say about the value of school studies?
School studies are sacramental exercises; with the right motivation, learning can be sanctifying. For Weil, Christian students should be more concerned with their ascent on the spiritual plane than their success within the earthly realm. Education, to her, is a spiritual exercise.
What is sacred in every human being Simone Weil?
As Weil declares: “There is something sacred in every human being, but it is not their person. It is this human being; no more and no less.”
What century was Nietzsche?
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality.
Who was Socrates wife?
CONCERNING THE MARRIAGE of Socrates our earliest and best sources, Plato and Xenophon, tell a single tale. His wife was Xanthippe, who was the mother of his children, Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus.
Was Descartes married?
Descartes never married, but he fathered a child in 1635 with Helena Jans van der Strom. The child, named Francine, died at age five of scarlet fever.
When did Thomas Hobbes born died?
Thomas Hobbes, (born April 5, 1588, Westport, Wiltshire, England—died December 4, 1679, Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire), English philosopher, scientist, and historian, best known for his political philosophy, especially as articulated in his masterpiece Leviathan (1651).
Was Thomas Hobbes rich or poor?
Thomas Hobbes was born in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, on 5 April 1588, the son of a clergyman. His father left the family in 1604 and never returned, so a wealthy uncle sponsored Hobbes’ education at Oxford University. In 1608, Hobbes became tutor to William Cavendish, later earl of Devonshire.
Who was Nietzsche in love with?
Frederich Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher, was in love with Turin. He raved about the city’s gelato, its music and its quiet. Robert Rethy, head of the Philosophy Department at Cincinnati’s Xavier University, tells Scott Simon about Nietzsche’s Turin.
Does Nietzsche believe in God?
Nietzsche was an atheist for his adult life and didn’t mean that there was a God who had actually died, rather that our idea of one had. … Europe no longer needed God as the source for all morality, value, or order in the universe; philosophy and science were capable of doing that for us.
Who did Nietzsche love?
The two met Nietzsche in Rome in April 1882, and Nietzsche is believed to have instantly fallen in love with Salomé, as Rée had earlier done. Nietzsche asked Rée to propose marriage to Salomé on his behalf, which she rejected.
What is attention in love?
Krishnamurti wrote that “to pay attention means we care, which means we really love.” Attention is the most basic form of love. By paying attention, we let ourselves be touched by life, and our hearts naturally become more open and engaged. … Feeling loved and loving matters to us beyond all else.
Who said attention prayer?
Weil turns to attention as the counterpoint to this graceless will — where the will contracts the spirit, she argues, attention expands it: Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.
What religion was Simone Weil?
Though born of Jewish parents, Weil eventually adopted a mystical theology that came very close to Roman Catholicism.