Lectures on Philosophy

by Simone Weil, H. Price (Translator)

Simone Weil's Leçons de Philosophie are derived from a course she taught at the lycée for girls at Roanne in 1933-4. Anne Reynaud-Guérithault was a pupil in the class; her notes are not a verbatim record but are a very full and, as far as one can judge, faithful rendering, often catching the unmistakable tone of Simone Weil's voice as well as the force and the directness of her thought. The lectures form a good general introduction to philosophy, ranging widely over problems about perception, mind, language, reasoning and problems in moral and political philosophy too. Her method of presentation is a characteristic combination of abstract argument, personal experience and literary or historical reference. Peter Winch points out in his introduction to the book some of the more systematic connections in her philosophical work (and between this philosophical work and her other concerns), and makes a number of suggestive comparisons between Simone Weil and Wittgenstein. The translation is by Hugh Price from the Plon edition of 1959. Dr Price has added some notes to explain references in the text that might be unfamiliar to English speaking students beginning philosophy.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, France, History

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Simone Weil was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist. Weil was born in Paris to Alsatian agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. Her brilliance, ascetic lifestyle, introversion, and eccentricity limited her ability to mix with others, but not to teach and participate in political movements of her time. She wrote extensively with both insight and breadth about political movements of which she was a part and later about spiritual mysticism. Weil biographer Gabriella Fiori writes that Weil was "a moral genius in the orbit of ethics, a genius of immense revolutionary range".

Reviews

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know what? It's almost like Weil built her own no-nonsense architectonic of her interpretation of Western Thought and then, as is her manner, humbly called it, "Lectures on Philosophy." This book is a precious fact of my life.

[Sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Simone Weil and she is definitely underrated. The book is a collection of notes from one a group of her lectures as taken by one of her students. So it’s not Simone writing herself but the essence of her thoughts and I can sense that the gist of her thoughts are captured and it does sound like Simone speaking through these words knowing what little I know about her. It’s essentially her opinion on various philosophical points such as materialism, the mind, politics and social history, ethics and aesthetics and various other miscellaneous topics which she also dabbles on. Its hard to pin point what it is that I like about her but she does certainly have a way which cuts, painlessly, if that isn’t an oxymoron, to the heart of the matter unlike many philosophers that I have read. Some of the best bits from the book were:
• “We can thanks to language call to mind anything we please; it is language which changes us into people who act. We are of course subject to what exists but we have power over almost everything through words. I have no power whatsoever over the sun and stars; but I have complete control over the word ‘sun’.”
• “Once Goethe had expressed his despair in Werther it became a phase through which all people pass.”
• “This is what the seventeenth century French general Turenne (of whom Napoleon said that he was the best genera before him) used to say to himself during battle when he could not stop himself shivering. The full reported sentence is: “you shiver carcass, but If you knew where I intend to take you next you would shiver even more.”
• “Judgement is the essential faculty of the mind. It is high praise to say of someone “he is a man of judgement”. Kant called this faculty of making relationships the original synthetic unity of apperception.”
• "One has to point out that there have been societies where oppression has been very much less, where there were neither oppressors not oppressed, that is to say, where there were no classes. These are the societies called 'primitive'. For a long time it used to be thought that there were very powerful chiefs in these societies, but modern historical science has shown that the chief did not have any real authority. There were assemblies (for example, assemblies of 'Elders'), councils which arrived at decisions unanimously, not by a majority decision. We might think this extraordinary, but, in fact, when one considers that these men, who had no division of labour, had the same desires, the same life, etc. unanimity is something quite natural."
• “One can submit to but one cannot accept the way production is no organised. If one stops oneself from thinking of all this, one makes oneself an accomplice in what is happening. One has to do something quite different: take one’s place in this system of things and do something about it.”
• “act as if the maxim of your act were to become through your action a universal law” – this is quite similar to a quote I remember reading a long time where and I know not from which book which said that you should act as though if they were to ask you to repeat your day you could honestly say that its entirety were filled with activities you would be happy to repeat for a lifetime.
• “Rule about suffering: “the cucumber is bitter, throw it away: there are brambles in your way, avoid them that is enough” – maybe Neechy would suggest the opposite.
• The greatest and perhaps the only danger for the young who have been richly blessed with intelligence is public opinion (sophistry on a special scale). Nowadays the mean that exist of making an impression on society on a grand scale are particularly powerful. if one doesn’t put questions to oneself and treat things critically, then that is because one has become corrupted by this sophistry which surrounds one on all sides.”

[—]

A slim volume of lecture notes, faithfully capturing Simone Weil's voice and accurately transcribing the contents of her thought. Her intentions, of rooting out falsehoods, and securing the prominence of the dialectic, are essentially noble, and a lot of the material we have here is brief and digestible, while uniquely challenging the objects of Weil's discursion. Occasionally she invokes a rather base interpretation of complex systems, or reduces the beliefs of philosophers into simplicity, but her insights make up for the aspects that lack sourcing or proper, in depth justification. A good book, if you're looking to read an analysis of the interaction between disciplines that shaped philosophy as we understand it today.

[pier · Rating 5 out of 5]

lectures with the perfect amount of bias

[Bart Stouten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heel interessant om te ervaren hoe Simone Weil haar filosofische gedachtenwereld structureert. Wel moet je rekening houden met de filter die hier gehanteerd wordt: we lezen de aantekeningen van een van haar studenten. Er zijn momenten waarop ik het gevoel heb dat 'iets niet klopt', dat iets verkeerd begrepen werd. Al bij al een uniek document. Ik heb me geen seconde verveeld.

[ɐɹɥǝz ★ дагюстюн · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'est un des livres de philosophie qu'il faut lire. C'était aussi bien que ce à quoi je m'attendais en tant que quelqu'un qui s'intéresse à la philosophie depuis longtemps. 4/5 💕

[Jude Martyński · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.7

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The notebook of a student of Simone Weil when she taught a class at a girl's school in 1934, expanded with footnotes and explanations to the notes and regarding items unfamiliar to non-philosophy students. Weil's voice can be detected in much of the lessons.