The Embers of Antiquity: The Wartime Political Philosophy of Simone Weil

Publication Type

Thesis

Year of Publication

2000

Author

Emery, Mark Thomas

Academic Department

Political Science

Publisher

Yale University

Place Published

Connecticut

Work Type

Diss

Language

English

Advisor

Smith, Steven B.

Keywords

affliction (malheur)
art
beauty
democracy
force
freedom
Greece
Judaism
justice
mysticism
obligations
oppression
rights
Rome

Annotation

Emery is primarily interested in Weil as a political philosopher. Through an in-depth, critical discussion of her work, Emery argues Weil lays the foundation for a political philosophy that incorporates what he terms the ‘values of mysticism’ bringing them into the public sphere. The dissertation considers Weil’s status as a political philosopher, her views on the Greeks, Roman and Hebrew civilizations, her concern for and engagement with the ‘afflicted’, her writing on the oppositions between force and justice, rights and obligations, her ideas about the ‘impersonal’, freedom and democracy, and her experiences of and views about mysticism.