Knowing, Totality and Politics in Simone Weil and Albert Camus

Publication Type

Journal Article

Year of Publication

1998

Author

LeBlanc, John Randolph

Journal

Politics and Policy

Volume

26

Number

3

Pages

593-610

Language

English

Keywords

Camus, Albert
attention
decreation
epistemology
grace
knowledge
necessity
personal/impersonal
politics

Annotation

LeBlanc compares the thought of Simone Weil to that of Albert Camus arguing, “Together from their work emerges a demonstration and critique of the crucial relationship between post-Enlightenment epistemology and totalitarian political order”. (p. 594) He begins with an analysis of Weil’s complex notion of necessity, and then turns to a consideration of Camus’s discussion of the absurd. Both thinkers, he notes, addressed the dangers arising from the attempt to master or defeat necessity or the absurd. He then moves on to compare and contrast Weil’s and Camus’ ‘epistemological response’ elaborating on their understanding of ‘knowing’ and ultimately their respective critiques of totalitarianism. In Weil’s case this involves a relatively in-depth examination of her concepts of decreation, grace, and the ‘personal/impersonal’ distinction among other aspects of her thought. After presenting Camus’ epistemology, LeBlanc concludes with a discussion of the implications of Weil’s and Camus’ thought in the face of the “totalizing political forms of the twentieth century”. (p. 606)