The Bloomsbury Handbook of Simone Weil

Exploring the philosophical writings of Simone Weil, this unparalleled reference work documents the key thinkers who influenced her political, philosophical and religious outlook.It also offers a critical analysis of her wide-ranging philosophical concepts through short, accessible essays, showing how they connect throughout her writings to form an organic whole. After outlining her biography, Part I explores Weil’s boundary-crossing interests in radical politics, science, mathematics, history, and religious phenomena.Part II traces the intellectual history of Weil’s own writings by mapping her most important philosophical influences including Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Rousseau, Kant, and Marx.The rich landscape of Weil’s philosophy receives critical consideration in Part III through the distinctive defining terms that tie her body of thinking together: terms such as amor fati, attention, beauty, force, gravity and grace, receive full explication alongside important themes of justice,