The Bloomsbury Handbook of Simone Weil

The first reference work on the philosophical writings of Simone Weil covering key influences, terms, and themes.

Exploring the philosophical writings of Simone Weil, this extensive work documents the key thinkers who influenced her political, philosophical and religious outlook. It also offers a critical analysis of her wide-ranging philosophical concepts through incisive and insightful essays, revealing how they connect throughout her writings to form an organic whole.

Part I explores Weil’s boundary-crossing interests in radical politics, science, mathematics, history, and religious phenomena. Part II traces the intellectual history of Weil’s own writings by mapping her most important philosophical influences including Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant, and Marx. Part III turns to the distinctive terms that tie Weil’s body of thinking together: terms such as amor fati, attention, beauty, force, gravity and grace, receive full explication alongside important themes of justice, obedience, compassion, and method as they figure in her work.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Simone Weil provides readers with clarifying and comprehensive coverage of Weil’s ideas and writings, leading the reader through her expansive oeuvre alongside an overview of the critical literature.