Category: Weil, Simone
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Church Patriotism
Simone Weil, somewhere in Gravity and Grace, speaks of "church patriotism." It's comparable to the knee-jerk patriotism of the "my country right or wrong" sort. Both are forms of idolatry. Ecclesiolatry on the one hand, statolatry on the other. (That's not my coinage; bang on the link.)
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Be neither Bohemian nor Bourgeois
A Substack short with a scene from "Barfly." Is that Bukowski at the bar?
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Why a Philosopher Should Meditate . . .
. . . and why it is difficult for a philosopher to meditate. I trust that you are alive to the semantic polyvalence of 'meditate' and appreciate the sense in which I am using the term. Substack latest.
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Crucifixion as Incarnation in extremis
In an earlier thread, Vito Caiati states: Thus, while Christ’s physical suffering is comparable to ours, his emotional suffering is not: He is in a unique and privileged existential position, one that derives from his absolute knowledge of all things, which permits him to die [in horrific] pain but without the terrors of the unknown…
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Intimations of Elsewhere: Sensible Reminders of Hidden Beauty
Salzburg, Austria, December 1971. A young Austrian girl, radiant and beautiful, walked into the kitchen. I lost all desire for the food I had prepared. My soul sprouted wings. The visible beauty triggered a memory of a timeless Beauty. Anamnesis pierced for a moment the amnesia induced by the bodily senses. Dayton, Ohio, 1978. Gripped…
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Simone Weil in the Light of Plato
Substack notes on Phaedo 83. Thomas Merton, Journals, vol. 4, p. 57 (10 October 1960): The superb moral and positive beauty of the Phaedo. One does not have to agree with Plato, but one must hear him. Not to listen to such a voice is unpardonable, it is like not listening to conscience or nature. Absolutely right.…
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Simone Weil on False Gods
Over at Substack. If you haven't made the acquaintance of Simone Weil, may I introduce you?
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A False Religious Humility?
I wonder about the self-abasing humility of those at the extreme forward edge of the religious sensibility as personified by Simone Weil and others and as expressed in such locutions as "I am nothing" that one finds sprinkled about in devotional literature. How could I be nothing given my divine origin? Is the creature nothing…
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Charles Bukowski Meets Simone Weil
My Substack latest
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Simone Weil on False Gods
Despite her infuriating extremism, Simone Weil may well be the purest incarnation of religious sensibility in the twentieth century. "It's not up to us to believe in God, but only not to grant our love to false gods." As Weil understands, essential to genuine religion, though not exhaustive of it, is the realization that nothing…
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Thought, Prayer, Meditation
"Prayer is when night descends on thought." (Alain, as quoted by Albert Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus.) Knowing Alain, he must have intended his aphorism as a denigration of prayer. I see it the other way around. We cannot think our way out of our predicament; thinking merely allows us to map the terrain…
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Good Friday: At the Mercy of a Little Piece of Iron
Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, tr. Craufurd, Routledge 1995, p. 75: The infinite which is in man is at the mercy of a little piece of iron; such is the hum an condition; space and time are the cause of it. It is impossible to handle this piece of iron without suddenly reducing the infinite…
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Good Friday: At the Mercy of a Little Piece of Iron
Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, tr. Craufurd, Routledge 1995, p. 75: The infinite which is in man is at the mercy of a little piece of iron; such is the human condition; space and time are the cause of it. It is impossible to handle this piece of iron without suddenly reducing the infinite which…
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Simone Weil in the Light of Plato: Notes on Phaedo 83
To understand Simone Weil, one must understand her beloved master, Plato. So let's interpret a passage from the Phaedo dialogue, and then compare it to some statements of Weil. At Stephanus 83a we read, "…the perceptions of the eye, and the ear, and the the senses are full of deceit." (tr. F. J. Church) The…
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A Partial Philosophical Defense of the Monastic Life
The suggestion was made that I give a little talk to the monks of Christ in the Desert, a Benedictine monastery outside of Abiqui, New Mexico. I thought I would offer a few words in defense of the monastic life, not that such an ancient and venerable tradition needs any defense from me, but just…