{"id":1664,"date":"2023-01-24T11:47:39","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/24\/simone-weil-in-the-light-of-plato\/"},"modified":"2023-01-24T11:47:39","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T11:47:39","slug":"simone-weil-in-the-light-of-plato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/24\/simone-weil-in-the-light-of-plato\/","title":{"rendered":"Simone Weil in the Light of Plato"},"content":{"rendered":"

Substack<\/em> notes<\/a> on Phaedo<\/em> 83.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas Merton, Journals<\/em>, vol. 4, p. 57 (10 October 1960):<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The superb moral and positive beauty of the Phaedo<\/em>.  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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Absolutely right.<\/span><\/p>\n

The writings of Plato are inexhaustible  in their riches. For years I read and taught the Phaedo<\/em> dialogue, without appreciating the theory of relations contained therein until I read Plato's "Phaedo" Theory of Relations<\/a> by H\u00e9ctor-Neri Casta\u00f1eda.  I spent the summer of 1984 with Hector in Bloomington at Indiana University on an NEH summer seminar grant. Little did I know at the time that Frithjof Schuon, a very different type of philosopher than Hector, and one I admire more than Hector, was living in Bloomington at the same time. An opportunity missed! <\/span><\/p>\n

Hector was a brilliant man, a creative powerhouse, and most generous in the help he gave his younger colleagues, but his approach to philosophy was merely theoretical; I discerned no spiritual depth in him. Schuon was roughly the opposite: spiritually deep but in need of some analytic discipline.  Plato combined the attributes of spiritual depth and analytic penetration that fall asunder in lesser mortals.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Weil, Plato "has genius whereas only the word talent applies to Aristotle." ("Human Personality" in Simone Weil, An Anthology<\/em>, p. 67)<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. … Continue reading “Simone Weil in the Light of Plato”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plato","category-substack","category-weil-simone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1664\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}