The American Weil Society’s annual colloquy, “Translations of Beauty: Simone Weil and Literature,” will be held at the University of Notre Dame, March 17–19, 2022, at the McKenna Conference Center. Robert Chenavier, author of Simone Weil: Attention to the Real (University of Notre Dame Press, 2012) is scheduled to give the keynote address.
French philosopher, activist, and Christian mystic Simone Weil brought to the forefront brilliant insight on the political movements of her day. Born in Paris to agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany, she dedicated most of her life assisting trade union movements and better understanding the working class.
Notre Dame Press has published numerous books on the work of Simone Weil. These include:
Simone Weil for the 21st Century
by Eric O. Springsted
This book presents a comprehensive analysis of Weil’s interdisciplinary thought, focusing especially on the depth of its challenge to contemporary philosophical and religious studies. In a world where little is seen to have real meaning, Eric O. Springsted presents a critique of the unfocused nature of postmodern philosophy and argues that Weil’s thought is more significant than ever in showing how the world in which we live is, in fact, a world of mysteries.
Simone Weil: Late Philosophical Writing
by Simone Weil
In Simone Weil: Late Philosophical Writings, Eric O. Springsted presents a unique collection of Weil’s writings, concentrating on her explicitly philosophical thinking. The essays are drawn chiefly from the time Weil spent in Marseille in 1940-42, as well as one written from London; most have been out of print for some time; three appear for the first time; all are newly translated.
Simone Weil: Attention to the Real
by Robert Chenavier
Robert Chenavier explores the work of Simone Weil (1909–1943) and demonstrates how she brought the demand of the spiritual life and the struggle for solidarity together in a single movement of thought. Bernard Doering’s superb translation brings to English readers Chenavier’s succinct account of Simone Weil’s life and an illuminating introduction to her philosophical thought.
Simone Weil and the Specter of Self-Perpetuating Force
by E. Jane Doering
E. Jane Doering carefully examines and analyzes the material in Weil’s notebooks and lesser-known essays to illuminate her evolving thoughts on violence, war, and injustice. In addition, Doering addresses Weil’s engagement with the Bhagavad Gita during her final years, a text that reoriented and enlightened Weil’s activist and intellectual search for moral value in a violent world.
Weaving the World: Simone Weil on Science, Mathematics and Love
by Vance G. Morgan
Vance G. Morgan investigates Weil’s earliest texts on science, in which she lays the foundation for a conception of science rooted in basic human concerns and activities. He then tracks Weil’s analysis of the development of science, particularly of the mathematics and science of the ancient Greeks. He especially explores Weil’s interpretation of the Pythagoreans and their mathematical discoveries, giving special attention to the mathematical foundations of musical harmonies.
The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil
edited by E. Jane Doering and Eric O. Springsted
In this book a group of renowned international scholars seek to discern the ways in which Simone Weil was indebted to Plato, and how her provocative readings of his work offer challenges to contemporary philosophy, theology, and spirituality.