The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind (Routledge Classics)

hailed By Andre Gide As The Patron Saint Of All Outsiders, Simone Weil's Short Life Was Ample Testimony To Her Beliefs. In 1942 She Fled France Along With Her Family, Going Firstly To America. She Then Moved Back To London In Order To Work With De Gaulle. Published Posthumously the Need For Roots Was A Direct Result Of This Collaboration. Its Purpose Was To Help Rebuild France After The War. In This, Her Most Famous Book, Weil Reflects On The Importance Of Religious And Political Social Structures In The Life Of The Individual. She Wrote That One Of The Basic Obligations We Have As Human Beings Is To Not Let Another Suffer From Hunger. Equally As Important, However, Is Our Duty Towards Our Community: We May Have Declared Various Human Rights, But We Have Overlooked The Obligations And This Has Left Us Self-righteous And Rootless. She Could Easily Have Been Issuing A Direct Warning To Us Today, The Citizens Of Century 21. "Hailed by Andre Gide as the patron saint of all outsiders, Simone Well's short life was ample testimony to her beliefs. In 1943, the final year of her life, unable to join the resistance movement in France, she worked in London for the Free French government in exile. Here she was commissioned to outline a plan for the renewal of Europe after the scourge of Nazism. The Need for Roots was the direct result. In it she seized the opportunity to denounce the false values of contemporary civilization. In the cult of materialism she witnessed a devastating loss of spirit and consequently of human values. To counteract this she sets out a radical vision for spiritual and political renewal with a passion for truth which sweeps through these pages. The book has become a lasting spiritual testament for our age, where we are confronted, as T.S. Eliot comments, by a genius akin to that of the saints."--Jacket Hailed by Andre Gide as the patron saint of all outsiders, Simone Weil's short life was ample testimony to her beliefs. In 1943, the final year of her life, unable to join the resistance movement in France, she worked in London for the Free French government in exile. Here she was commissioned to outline a plan for the renewal of Europe after the scourge of Nazism. The Need for Roots was the direct result. In it she seized the opportunity to denounce the false values of contemporary civilisation. In the cult of materials she witnessed a devastating loss of spirit and consequently of human values. To counteract this she sets out a radical vision for spiritual and political renewal with a passion for truth which sweeps through these pages. The book has become a lasting spiritual testament for our age, where we are confronted, as T.S. Eliot comments, by a 'genius akin to that of the saints'. Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 3 Copyright......Page 4 CONTENTS......Page 5 Preface by T. S. Eliot......Page 7 Translator's Foreword......Page 15 The Needs of the Soul......Page 18 ORDER......Page 25 LIBERTY......Page 27 OBEDIENCE......Page 28 RESPONSIBILITY......Page 30 EQUALITY......Page 31 HIERARCHISM......Page 33 HONOUR......Page 34 PUNISHMENT......Page 35 FREEDOM OF OPINION......Page 37 SECURITY......Page 47 RISK......Page 48 PRIVATE PROPERTY......Page 49 COLLECTIVE PROPERTY......Page 50 TRUTH......Page 51 Uprootedness......Page 56 UPROOTEDNESS IN THE TOWNS......Page 57 UPROOTEDNESS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE......Page 91 UPROOTEDNESS AND NATIONHOOD......Page 111 The Growing of Roots......Page 198 Simone Weil writes on the subject of uprootedness and calls for a rediscovery of spiritual roots. She deals with the needs of the soul, discussing order, liberty, obedience, responsibility and finishing with the need for truth. The notion of obligations comes before that of rights, which is subordinate and relative to the former.