Simone Weil: The Way of Justice as Compassion
Publication Type |
Book |
Year of Publication |
1998 |
Author |
|
Series Title |
Twentieth-Century Political Thinkers |
Pages |
xviii, 259 |
Publisher |
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |
Place Published |
Lanham, MD. |
Language |
English |
Keywords |
community |
Annotation |
This book, part of a series on twentieth century political thinkers, focuses on Weil’s political and moral philosophy. The authors acknowledges David McLellan’s Simone Weil: Utopian Pessimist, Peter Winch’s Just Balance and Bell’s own essays in his Simone Weil’s Philosophy of Culture, as forming the background for the book. As indicated by the title, Bell focuses on Weil’s concept of justice. He begins by providing some background biographical material, especially as it pertains to the development of Weil’s moral and political thought. He then goes on to specifically consider the texts in which she discusses justice, developing an in-depth discussion of how her notions of justice encompassing her ideas of attention and compassion might connect to the thought of several modern thinkers including Václav Havel, Paulo Freire, and John Rawls. This discussion ranges over issues of civil society and the law, community, politics and education. Ronald K. L. Collins and Finn E. Nielsen’s’ essay “The Spirit of Simone Weil’s Law” is included as an appendix to the volume contributing to a fuller discussion of this subject. The book also tackles the issue of gender and Weil’s complex and controversial treatment of her own Jewish roots and Judaism in general. Bell’s book is an important addition to the writing on Weil, attempting as he notes, to counterbalance the predominately Christian focus in much of the work on her, a focus that at times neglects or downplays the diversity of religious and philosophical thought informing her work |