Weil's Core Ideas and Definition of Love

Matthew begins a two-part exploration of Simone Weil—French philosopher, mystic, and antifascist activist—through the lens of autism, embodiment, and political courage. Following the earlier Antifascist Christianity Woodshed series on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this installment positions Weil as a kind of spiritual auntie to Greta Thunberg, whose uncompromising honesty, rooted in autistic perception, continues to disrupt fascist, capitalist, and liberal narrative.

Matthew traces Weil’s journey from childhood acts of solidarity, like giving up sugar during WW1, to her immersion in factory labor, revolutionary syndicalism, and frontline service in the Spanish Civil War. Weil’s refusal of privilege and their lifelong impulse to take on suffering emerge as core features of both her philosophy and her autistic experience. They also stood up to Leon Trotsky, calling out Soviet authoritarianism long before its collapse.

Weil can be understood not only through the posthumous notebooks and essays that editors and institutions reshaped into seventeen volumes, but through the lived reality of their embodied resistance. Their ideas remain striking: the notion of attention as the rarest form of generosity; the insistence that obligations come before rights; the practice of “decreation” as a release of ego in the service of love; and the “need for roots” as an antifascist alternative to blood-and-soil nationalism.

Part 2 of this series drops Monday on Patreon, where Matthew goes deeper into Weil’s autistic traits, their spiritual life, and how their philosophy continues to confront liberalism and fascism alike.

Support us on Patreon to access Part 2 and the full Antifascist Woodshed series.

Show NotesColes, Robert. Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage. Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2001.

Fitzgerald, Michael. The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the Arts. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006.

Gilman-Opalsky, Richard. The Communism of Love: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Exchange Value. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2020.

Lawson, Kathryn. Ecological Ethics and the Philosophy of Simone Weil. New York: Routledge, 2024. doi:10.4324/9781003449621.

McCullough, Lissa. The Religious Philosophy of Simone Weil: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2014.

Plant, Stephen. Simone Weil: A Brief Introduction. Revised and expanded edition. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.

Song, Youming, Tingting Nie, Wendian Shi, Xudong Zhao, and Yongyong Yang. "Empathy Impairment in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Conditions From a Multidimensional Perspective: A Meta-Analysis." Frontiers in Psychology 10 (October 9, 2019): 01902. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01902.

Wallace, Cynthia R. The Literary Afterlives of Simone Weil: Feminism, Justice, and the Challenge of Religion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024.

Weil, Simone. The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind. Translated by Arthur Wills. With a preface by T. S. Eliot. Routledge Classics. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.

Weil, Simone. Modern Classics Simone Weil: An Anthology. Edited and Introduced by Siân Miles. London: Penguin Books, 2005.

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