Editing Simone Weil (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:3 rue du Bourbonnais, Vichy - plaque Simone Weil.jpg|thumb|Plaque recognizing Weil]]
During her lifetime, Weil was known only in relatively narrow circles and even in France her essays were mostly read only by those interested in radical politics. During the first decade after her death, Weil rapidly became famous, attracting attention throughout the West. For the third quarter of the 20th century, she was widely regarded as the most influential person in the world on new work concerning religious and spiritual matters.<ref>Even some of her critics conceded this, see Hellman (1982), p. 4-5</ref> Her philosophical,<ref>Note, however, that while Weil's philosophical work received much popular attention, including by intellectuals, she was relatively little studied by professional philosophers, especially in the English-speaking world, despite philosophy being the subject in which she was professionally trained. See, for example, the Introduction of ''Simone Weil: "The Just Balance"'' by [[Peter Winch]], which is an excellent source for a philosophical discussion of her ideas, especially for those interested in the overlap between her work and that of Wittgenstein.</ref> social and political thought also became popular, although not to the same degree as her religious work.<ref>Various scholars have listed her among the top five French political writers of the first half of the twentieth century, see Hellman (1982), p. 4-5.</ref>

Aside from influencing various fields of study, Weil deeply affected the personal lives of numerous individuals. [[Pope Paul VI]] said that Weil was one of his three greatest influences.<ref>The other two being [[Blaise Pascal|Pascal]] and [[Georges Bernanos]]; see Hellman (1982), p. 1</ref> Weil is also cited as an influence by [[Iris Murdoch]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-07-11 |title=What did Iris Murdoch mean by 'attention'? |url=https://www.abc.net.au/religion/iris-murdoch-and-the-meaning-of-attention/11301690 |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=ABC Religion & Ethics |language=en-AU}}</ref> [[Jacques Derrida]],<ref>{{Citation |last1=Rozelle-Stone |first1=A. Rebecca |title=Simone Weil |date=2024 |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/simone-weil/ |access-date=2024-12-23 |edition=Summer 2024 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |last2=Davis |first2=Benjamin P. |editor2-last=Nodelman |editor2-first=Uri}}</ref>  [[Albert Camus]],<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Thurman |first=Judith |date=2024-09-02 |title=The Supreme Contradictions of Simone Weil |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/09/simone-weil-a-life-in-letters-robert-chenavier-andre-a-devaux-book-review? |access-date=2024-12-23 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref> [[Frantz Fanon|Franz Fanon]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Higgs |first1=Paul |last2=Gilleard |first2=Chris |date=2022-09-01 |title=Is ageism an oppression? |journal=Journal of Aging Studies |volume=62 |pages=101051 |doi=10.1016/j.jaging.2022.101051 |issn=0890-4065|doi-access=free |pmid=36008024 }}</ref> [[Emmanuel Levinas]],<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Guilherme |first1=Alexandre |title=Philosophy, dialogue, and education: nine modern European philosophers |last2=Morgan |first2=W. John |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |isbn=978-1-315-73653-2 |series=Routledge international studies in the philosophy of education |location=London New York}}</ref> [[George Grant (philosopher)|George Grant]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Grant on Simone Weil as Saint and Thinker |url=https://simoneweil.library.ucalgary.ca/bibliography/george-grant-on-simone-weil-as-saint-and-thinker/ |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=Simone Weil Bibliography |language=en-US}}</ref> [[Adrienne Rich]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=The contradictions of a 'saint for a secular age' |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/philosophy/history-of-philosophy/the-literary-afterlives-of-simone-weil-cynthia-r-wallace-book-review-madoc-cairns#:~:text=An%20atheist,%20socialist%20and%20feminist,not,%20Rich%20adds,%20succeed. |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=TLS |language=en-GB}}</ref> [[Jacqueline Rose]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Enigma of Simone Weil |url=https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/the-enigma-of-simone-weil?srsltid=AfmBOoo66UfRGzAORDaxmaZ3LqP1QGzLUThain2i-VE7VhqqrPDbbzDm |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=Verso |language=en}}</ref> and [[Thomas Merton]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2001-04-09 |title=Simone Weil's Last Journey |url=https://www.americamagazine.org/issue/335/article/simone-weils-last-journey |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=America Magazine |language=en}}</ref> Weil's popularity began to decline in the late 1960s and 1970s. However, more of her work was gradually published, leading to many thousands of new secondary works by Weil scholars, some of whom focused on achieving a deeper understanding of her religious, philosophical and political work. Others broadened the scope of Weil scholarship to investigate her applicability to fields like classical studies, cultural studies, education, and even technical fields like ergonomics.<ref name="Sian"/>

Many commentators have given highly positive assessments of Weil as a person; some describe her as a saint, even as the greatest saint of the twentieth century, including [[T.&nbsp;S. Eliot]], [[Dwight Macdonald]], [[Leslie Fiedler]], and [[Robert Coles (psychiatrist)|Robert Coles]].<ref>See Hellman (1982) for a list her biographers who have portrayed her as a saint.</ref> After they met at age 18, [[Simone de Beauvoir]] wroteː "I envied her for having a heart that could beat right across the world."<ref name="compassion"/> Weil biographer Gabriella Fiori writes that Weil was "a moral genius in the orbit of ethics, a genius of immense revolutionary range".<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110516165930/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1120206.html "The Lonely Pilgrimage of Simone Weil", ''The Washington Post'']</ref> [[Maurice Schumann]] said that since her death there was "hardly a day when the thought of her life did not positively influence his own and serve as a moral guide".<ref name="compassion">
{{cite book
|author=Weil H. Bell
|title=The Way of Justice as Compassion
|page=xxii
|year=1998
|isbn=0-8476-9080-6
|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]
|url=https://archive.org/details/simoneweil_bell_1998_000_6101702
|url-access=registration
}}
</ref> In 1951, Albert Camus wrote that she was "the only great spirit of our times".<ref name="Hellman"/> Foolish though she may have appeared at times—dropping a suitcase full of French resistance papers all over the sidewalk and scrambling to gather them up—her deep engagement with both the theory and practice of [[Charity (virtue)|caritas]], in all its myriad forms, functions as the unifying force of her life and thought. [[Gustave Thibon]], the French philosopher and Weil's close friend, recounts their last meeting, not long before her death: "I will only say that I had the impression of being in the presence of an absolutely transparent soul which was ready to be reabsorbed into original light."<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://ericadacosta.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/simone-weil.pdf
|title = The Four Simone Weils
|author = Erica DaCosta
|date = June 2004
|journal=The Women's Review of Books |volume=21 |number=9 |pages=7–8
|doi = 10.2307/4024308
|jstor = 4024308
|access-date = 2013-05-07
}}</ref> The Routledge edition of ''Gravity and Grace'' includes a New York Times Book Review stating "'In France she is ranked with Pascal by some, condemned as a dangerous heretic by others, and recognized as a genius by all."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.booktopia.com.au/gravity-and-grace-simone-weil/book/9780415290005.html?srsltid=AfmBOoocAS0zNKLaQTYveMf6OwRHcRDqnnNRKDPJxDNmTQ6XIi__hgRN |title=Gravity and Grace |language=en}}</ref> In 2017 President [[Emmanuel Macron]] mentioned Weil and her philosophy in a joint address to [[French Parliament|Parliament]] stating the need for what Weil calls ''l'effectivité'' (effectivity).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-07-03 |title=Discours du Président de la République devant le Parlement réuni en congrès |url=https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2017/07/03/discours-du-president-de-la-republique-devant-le-parlement-reuni-en-congres |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=elysee.fr |language=fr}}</ref>  
[[File:Simone Weil streetart.jpg|thumb|[[Street art]] image of Simone Weil in [[Kreuzberg|Berlin-Kreuzberg]] (2019)]]
Weil has been criticised, however, even by those who otherwise admired her deeply, such as T. S. Eliot, for being excessively prone to divide the world into good and evil, and for her sometimes intemperate judgments. Weil was a harsh critic of the influence of [[Judaism]] on Western civilisation.<ref name="Eliot"/> However, her niece Sylvie Weil and biographer Thomas R. Nevin argue that Weil did not reject Judaism and was heavily influenced by its precepts.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ivry|first=Benjamin|title=Simone Weil's Rediscovered Jewish Inspiration|date=30 March 2009|url=http://forward.com/articles/104410/simone-weil-s-rediscovered-jewish-inspiration/|publisher=The Jewish Daily Forward}}</ref> Weil was an even harsher critic of the [[Roman Empire]], in which she refused to see any value.<ref>She even disliked Romans who are normally admired by progressives, such as [[Virgil]], [[Marcus Aurelius]], and [[Tacitus]], reserving moderate praise only for the [[Gracchi]].</ref> On the other hand, according to Eliot, she held up the [[Cathar]]s as exemplars of goodness, despite there being in his view little concrete evidence on which to base such an assessment.<ref name="Eliot"/> According to Pétrement she idolised [[Lawrence of Arabia]], considering him to be a saint.<ref name="Pétrement 1988" />{{rp|pp=329,334}} A few critics have taken an overall negative view. Several Jewish writers, including [[Susan Sontag]], have accused her of [[antisemitism]], although this perspective is far from universal.<ref>Several of her most ardent admirers have also been Jewish, Wladimir Rabi, a contemporary French intellectual for example, called her the greatest French spiritual writer of the first half the twentieth century. See Hellman (1982), p. 2</ref> A small minority of commentators have judged her to be psychologically unbalanced or sexually obsessed.<ref name="Hellman"/> General [[Charles de Gaulle]], her ultimate boss while she worked for the ''French Resistance'', considered her "insane",<ref>"Elle est folle". See Malcolm Muggeridge, "The Infernal Grove", Fontana: Glasgow (pbk), 1975, p. 210.</ref> although even he was influenced by her and repeated some of her sayings for years after her death.<ref name="Hellman"/><ref name="Sian"/>

A meta study from the [[University of Calgary]] maintains a bibliography of more than 5,000 books, essays, journal articles, and theses about Weil and her work.<ref name="Calgary">{{cite web |author=Saundra Lipton and Debra Jensen |date=3 March 2012 |title=Simone Weil: Bibliography |url=https://www.ucalgary.ca/simoneweil/ |access-date=16 April 2012 |publisher=[[University of Calgary]]}}
</ref> Together French and English comprise slightly over 50% of the total records collected.<ref name="Calgary" /> Other organizations dedicated to her work include Association pour l'Étude de la Pensée de Simone Weil and the American Weil Society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Association pour l'étude de la pensée de Simone Weil - Les Cahiers Simone Weil |url=https://www.simoneweil-association.com/ |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=Etude de la pensée de Simone Weil |language=fr-FR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=American Weil Society - |url=https://www.americanweilsociety.org/ |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=www.americanweilsociety.org}}</ref>

In the decades since her death, her writings have been assembled, annotated, criticized, discussed, disputed, and praised. Along with some twenty volumes of her works, publishers have issued more than thirty biographies, including ''Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage'' by Robert Coles, [[Harvard University|Harvard]]'s [[Pulitzer Prize|Pulitzer]]-winning professor, who calls Weil 'a giant of reflection.'<ref>Alonzo L. McDonald, from the forward ''Wrestling with God, An Introduction to Simone Weil'' by The Trinity Forum c. 2008</ref>