Description
Simone Weil (1900-1943) is considered one of the outstanding thinkers of the 20th century. Her work is difficult to categorize. Her extraordinary life and her personal contradictions make it even more so. She was born to a family of assimilated French Jews and lived her life at the edge of Christianity but never converted. Her preoccupation with justice and human needs was not just theoretical: she worked in factories and experienced firsthand the hardships of workers. She died in England at the height of WWII basically because she refused to eat while the French were under occupation and living on limited rations. She was deeply interested in Catholicism and mysticism and fervently committed to alleviating human suffering. A gifted, deeply intelligent, and serious young woman, she hated being a woman and being a Jew. Her work and her personal story defy classification. It is difficult to call Weil a feminist or a Catholic or a Jew or to fit her in any category for that matter, yet her mystical and social writings continue to be influential. In this presentation we will discuss her life and her most significant positions.