An Economic Theorists’ Reading of Simone Weil
Publication Type |
Journal Article |
Year of Publication |
2008 |
Author |
|
Journal |
Economics and Philosophy |
Volume |
24 |
Number |
2 |
Pages |
191-204 |
Language |
English |
Keywords |
action |
Annotation |
The authors begin by describing what they call a standard economics model of a person as someone defined by preferences, presenting five features of such a model. They then turn to a brief discussion of Weil's experiences in the Renault factory, focusing mainly on a letter she had written to a friend about them. They extrapolate two main features of Weil's thought for discussion: action, especially "the conditions necessary for action to be human" and "the primacy of the socially forged language in continuously shaping one's identity" (p. 195). After discussing these in some depth, they use them to analyze and critique the economic model of the individual they presented in the earlier section of the paper. |
url |
http://www.openu.ac.il/Personal_sites/Aviad-Heifetz/simone_weil.pdf |