To On: A Nameless Something Over which the Mind Stumbles

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Year of Publication

2004

Author

Lussy, Florence de

Editor

Doering, E. Jane Springsted, Eric O.

Book

The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil

Pages

115-132

Publisher

University of Notre Dame Press

Place Published

Notre Dame, Indiana

Language

English

Chapter

7

Keywords

Buddhism
Christianity
convenable
harmony
mathematics
mystery
Plato

Annotation

De Lussy focuses here on Weil’s statement found in her notebooks that “In Plato, translate to on by the real”. De Lussy’s essay constitutes a carefully nuanced, in-depth consideration of exactly what Weil means by this statement. She traces the development of Weil’s thought in this understanding of ‘the real’ from her early writings at age seventeen, through her encounter with Zen Buddhism in the work of D.T. Suzuki to the more fully developed elaboration in her writing on Greek mathematics and philosophy. Central to the latter are Weil’s ideas of harmony and mystery, particularly her notion of convenable which De Lussy says, Weil somewhat redefines as “the concept of what is outside all concept” (p. 122).