Customer Reviews

Discussions of Simone Weil (Suny Series, Simone Weil Studies)

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I felt I had to reply to the first review as a one star rating seems woefully unfair for this deeply reflective, meditative work of philosophy. Rhees is no one's uncritical acolyte and Weil has been ill served by some her subsequent "supporters." I think she herself would welcome this kind of critical engagement with her work. It is not an introduction to her thought but for all that it is accessible and provokes the reader to think for herself. Read it!

Weil's appropriation by this odd tribe of neo-Wittgenstinians is an unfortunate thing. Weil was herself profoundly influenced by Pythagoras and Plato, and her writings--while not systematic--assuredly depend upon the rich metaphysical tradition of Christian Platonism. (Indeed, Herbert and the other Cambridge Platonists were among her favorite poets).

This particular book--a compendium of Rhees's musings on Weil--seems to have been assembled in slapdash fashion by Phillips, and it is clear that, while Rhees admired Weil immensely, his devotion to a peculiarly unintelligible brand of Anglophone analytic philosophy prevented him from accessing most of Weil's exceptional insights. He is far too quick to categorize Weil's metaphysical framework as mere rhetoric.

For a truly balanced (and far more clearly written) interpretation of Weil, I suggest Miklos Vetoe's Religious Metaphysics of Simone Weil (sadly out of print in its translated form, but readily available used).