Blackwell Reference Online

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Born to a wealthy Parisian family, which included her older brother André Weil (1906–98) – a famous mathematician who worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey – Simone Weil was a staunch activist and advocate for the poor, the disenfranchised, and the subaltern. As a child she refused to eat sugar, since French soldiers during World War I did not receive it in their rations, and in 1919 she declared herself to be a Bolshevik . Later she would become highly critical of Marxism , among other ideologies and dogmas, and embarked upon a philosophy that was both a quest for truth and a search for God. A brilliant student who demonstrated early on her scholarly aptitude and passion for learning – by age 12 she had mastered ancient Greek – in 1928 she received the highest mark in the examination for the prestigious École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris ( Simone de Beauvoir received the second best score that year). Weil would go on to earn her agrégation to teach philosophy in 1931 and taught sporadically in various lycées throughout France, including Auxerre, Bourges, Le Puy, Roanne, and Saint-Quentin. However, her teaching career was eclipsed by her political activism, commitment to social justice, and anti-capitalist stance (since her ENS days she was known as “The Red Virgin”), making her a constant target of school administrators. Weil was fired ... log in or subscribe to read full text