The Critical Spirit: The Pessimistic Heterodoxy of Simone Weil

This dissertation is a study of the heterodox social thought of the French philosopher, activist, and mystic, Simone Weil (1909-1943). I present, analyze, and critique Weil’s analysis of social oppression as a part of a tradition of pessimistic political thought that offers a critique of society as a totality without offering a preferred alternative. In hope of influencing future social critique and resistance, I draw inspiration from Weil’s advocacy for heterodox thought with a view toward the next wave of anti-ideological movements, present her deep understanding affliction in France’s interwar factory system as a model for understanding how precarious laborers are oppressed by the constant threat of humiliation in contemporary society, see the social ramifications of “the violence that does not kill just yet” in the dehumanization of both victims and abusers of violence, and, like Weil, see the promise of a free society of ethical individuals in nourishing communities, but do not expect such a society to resolve all the contemporary forms of social oppression. At the same time, I highlight Weil’s relevance to understanding the rising authoritarianism, racism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism of the past few years. From a critical standpoint, I challenge Weil’s individualistic conception of resistance and her problematic and often internally contradictory concessions to a theoretical asceticism that she was unable to achieve in her own political life. This includes hesitancies concerning the moral purity she demands of any actor seeking to use violence or make revolution through any means. Her turn to an individualist and inactive conception of resistance through decreation takes away from her goal of re-rooting society as a whole because decreation offers no path to collective action and seems impossible in a collective setting. I argue that Weil falls into a complicated compromise with the State, a real-world idol, which she seeks to abolish but in fact requires if she is to organize a society that can be prepared for mass individual resistance through the mystical passing through of decreation. Coverpage Dedication Preface Acknowledgements Table of Contents Introduction Chapter One_On Collective Idolatries Chapter Two_The Training of the Soul Chapter Three_Above Sin Chapter 4_Compromised Utopia Conclusion Bibliography Blank Page