Two Moral Essays: Draft for a Statement of Human Obligations, and, Human Personality

Pendle Hill Pamphlets

by Simone Weil

Positive morality rests on a foundation of faith. What is the nature of that faith, and what are its logical consequences?

Simone Weil (1909-1943) was one of the most brilliant French thinkers in an era marked by philosophical brilliance. She tried to combine philosophical perspective with a life of action, working in a factory and fighting in the Spanish Civil War in addition to pursuing her studies. After her experience in Spain, Weil split with the Marxists and began studying ancient religion, poetry and philosophy. The Iliad, or The Poem of Force stands out as her most noted essay.

Genres: Essays, Philosophy

32 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1981

About the author

Simone Weil was a French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist. Weil was born in Paris to Alsatian agnostic Jewish parents who fled the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. Her brilliance, ascetic lifestyle, introversion, and eccentricity limited her ability to mix with others, but not to teach and participate in political movements of her time. She wrote extensively with both insight and breadth about political movements of which she was a part and later about spiritual mysticism. Weil biographer Gabriella Fiori writes that Weil was "a moral genius in the orbit of ethics, a genius of immense revolutionary range".

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The good is the only source of the sacred. There is nothing sacred except the good and what pertains to it."

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the single most influential piece I have ever read; barely a thirty-page pamphlet.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ronald Hathaway edited these two essays, both published originally in a book, Selected Essays: 1934-43 published by Oxford Press. Hathaway was a professor at Temple University, liking the Pendle Hill pamphlet format, thought it provided a medium to have more young people exposed to Weil’s writings.

I'm so glad other people found value in this pamphlet, based on the other reviews. I found Simon Weil’s writing style in essays extremely difficult to read. Every sentence is a declarative, with a very militant, authoritarian tone. Also, I found it unnecessarily obtuse or cluttered. I can see why her writings fell out of favor after her death, if not before.

[joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

my queen 💖💖💖

[Hideaki Satoh · Rating 5 out of 5]

"At the centre of the human heart is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world."

Có những cuộc hội ngộ dù bị chia tách bởi thời gian và không gian và chỉ diễn ra qua những trang viết nhưng vẫn thật khiến lòng ta vui mừng, và tôi cũng sẽ không ngần ngại mà nói rằng Weil chính là nhà tư tưởng đẹp và thanh khiết nhất của thế kỷ 20. Tinh thần khổ hạnh và hướng thượng của Weil là thứ chúng ta cần trong bất cứ thời đại nào, để học cách sống, trưởng thành và yêu thương con người với một tình yêu chân chính.

"Maybe we're here in order to experience people as a reason for love" - Andrei Tarkovsky, "Solaris".