Volume 24, Number 8 · May 12, 1977
The Anti-Politics of Simone Weil
By Conor Cruise O'Brien
This essay is concerned with one particular aspect of Simone Weil's thought: her approach to, and revulsion from, politics. She is thought of primarily as a religious thinker, perhaps a saint, but her concept of religion and of sanctity both sought to embrace the political domain, and despaired of doing so. I shall consider especially L'Enracinement, the most sustained and final exposition of her 'political thought.' L'Enracinement was written in 1943, when she was with the Free French in London, shortly before her voluntary death.
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