Oppression and Liberty - Hardcover

Weil, Simone

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0710074913 ISBN 13: 9780710074911

Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, 1972

Synopsis

The remarkable French thinker Simone Weil is one of the leading intellectual and spiritual figures of the twentieth century. A legendary essayist, political philosopher and member of the French resistance, her literary output belied her tragically short life. Most of her work was published posthumously, to widespread acclaim. Always concerned with the nature of individual freedom, Weil explores in Oppression and Liberty its political and social implications. Analyzing the causes of oppression, its mechanisms and forms, she questions revolutionary responses and presents a prophetic view of a way forward. If, as she noted elsewhere, 'the future is made of the same stuff as the present', then there will always be a need to continue to listen to Simone Weil.

About this title

Review

"We must simply expose ourselves to the personality of a woman of genius, of a kind of genius akin to that of the saints."
-T.S. Eliot
"The best spiritual writer of this century."
-Andre Gide
"What makes this book worth reading - and it is extremely readable - is the clarity and force of the style and the sincerity of the emotions which led Simone Weil to reflect on political philosophy ... It is a book full of interest and insight, penetrating observations and stimulating suggestions with, even in its most pessimistic passages, a humane faith and sincerity that reinforce the reader's confidence in the possibility of a humanistic, rational and liberal order of society."
-The Times Literary Supplement

From the Back Cover

'We must simply expose ourselves to the personality of a woman of genius, of a kind of genius akin to that of the saints.' - T.S. Eliot

The remarkable French thinker Simone Weil is one of the leading intellectual and spiritual figures of the twentieth century. A legendary essayist, political philosopher and member of the French resistance, her literary output belied her tragically short life. Most of her work was published posthumously, to widespread acclaim. Always concerned with the nature of individual freedom, Weil explores in 'Oppression and Liberty' its political and social implications. Analysing the causes of oppression, its mechanisms and forms, she questions revolutionary responses and presents a prophetic view of a way forward. If, as she noted elsewhere, 'the future is made of the same stuff as the present', then there will always be a need to continue to listen to Simone Weil.

Simone Weil (1909-43). One of the most original philosophical, religious and political thinkers of the twentieth century; besides working as a teacher, a factory worker and a farmhand, she fought for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and was a member of the French resistance.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC
• Publication date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0710074913
• ISBN 13: 9780710074911
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 206