CFP: Spinoza and Simone Weil: Influences and Interconnections

Organisers: Oliver Toth (Heidelberg University), Christopher Thomas (Manchester Metropolitan University), and Kenneth Novis (University of Oxford).

Confirmed keynotes: Sebastian Rödl (University of Leipzig) and Simone Kotva (University of Gothenburg).

Spinoza is widely recognised as one of Simone Weil’s most profound influences. Despite this, his influence on her ideas has been the subject of limited consideration in the relevant literature. As a reader and interpreter of Spinoza, Simone Weil has received even less recognition despite undeniable similarities in their philosophies.

Authors writing about Spinoza’s influence on Simone Weil have tended to adopt one of four strategies for doing so. Some merely acknowledge this influence without further discussion.[i] Others indicate the period in Weil’s life at which this influence was the strongest, usually during her ‘early’ (1929-1934) career.[ii] Others are still more specific in describing this influence, stating in which of Weil’s ideas Spinoza’s presence can be felt.[iii] Apart from those who write about this influence are some who argue for an affinity between Weil and Spinoza’s ideas, ignoring Weil’s actual comments on him when assessing their relation.[iv] Despite all this, it may be appropriate to follow Comte-Sponville, who argues that “the influence of Spinoza on Simone Weil […] is less than one might think.”[v]

This conference has two aims: 1) To unpack the historical influence of Spinoza’s ideas on Simone Weil, both through her teachers (especially Lagneau and Alain) and her independent studies, and 2) to consider Spinoza’s philosophy in light of Weil’s interpretation, highlighting similarities and linkages between Spinoza and Weil’s philosophies that elucidate some aspects of either of their ideas. These topics have been considered by Peter Winch (Spinoza on Ethics and Understanding and Simone Weil: ‘The Just Balance’) and Alain Goldschläger (Simone Weil et Spinoza). But there is clearly much more to be said on the alleged importance of Spinoza to Weil, as well as the phenomenological and political dimensions that Weil might bring to Spinoza’s philosophy.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of potential topics for contributions:

·      Weil’s interpretation of Spinoza

·      Alain between Spinoza and Weil

·      Reading as knowledge of the three kinds

·      Weil and 20th century Spinozism

·      Weil and Spinoza on the human perspective’s (lack of) value

·      Weil and Spinoza as philosophers of relation

·      Weil’s critique of Enlightenment metaphysics

·      Weil’s ‘pantheism for saints’ and Spinoza

·      Neoplatonic interpretations of Spinoza

·      Spinoza and uprootedness

·      Spinoza and decreation

·      Weil: a Marxist critic of Spinoza?

·      Connections between Levinas’ criticisms of Spinoza and Weil

·      Political conservatism in Spinoza and Weil

This conference will be taking place on May 22nd-23rd, at the University of Oxford, St Hugh’s College. To apply for the conference, please send an anonymised abstract (500 words maximum) to the following email address by February 28th: [email protected]. We will endeavour to reply to all applicants by March 16th. In your email, please also state your name, your current research status, and your institutional affiliation. We particularly welcome abstracts from researchers belonging to under-represented groups.

We hope to be able to offer limited travel bursaries for speakers, currently estimated at £200 per person. To apply for a travel bursary, please send us a short statement (200 words maximum) outlining your financial situation, alongside your abstract. Applications for the bursaries will be assessed based on need and the funding available to us. If you are a member of the Spinoza-Gesellschaft, please indicate this in the body of your email.

This conference is generously funded by the British Society for the History of Philosophy, the MIND Trust, the Spinoza-Gesellschaft, and the University of Oxford Philosophy faculty.

[i] E.g., Palle Yourgrau, Simone Weil (London: Reaktion Books, 2011), 124, Richard Rees, Simone Weil: Sketch for a Portrait. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1966), 111, Jean-Marie Perrin and Gustave Thibon, Simone Weil as we knew her. (tr.) E. Craufurd. (London: Routledge, 2004), 39 and 72, and E. Jane Doering, Simone Weil and the Specter of Self-Perpetuating Force. (Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), 9.

[ii] E.g., Jacques Cabaud, Simone Weil: A Fellowship in Love. (London: Harvill Press, 1964), 35 and 76, Eric O. Springsted, Christus Mediator: Platonic Mediation in the Thought of Simone Weil. Chico: Scholars Press, 1983), 11, and Henry Leroy Finch, Simone Weil and the Intellect of Grace. (ed.) Andic, M. (New York: Continuum, 2001), 33.

[iii] E.g., Cyril O’Regan, “Countermimesis and Simone Weil’s Christian Platonism,” in The Christian Platonism of Simone Weil, ed. E. J. Doering and E. O. Springsted. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004), 205, Simone Pétrement, Simone Weil: A Life. (tr.) R. Rosenthal. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1973), 39, 69, and 542n10, Thomas R. Nevin, Simone Weil: Portrait of a Self-Exiled Jew. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), 51-53, David Cockburn, “Winch, Spinoza and the Human Body,” in Spinoza on Ethics and Understanding. (London: Anthem Press, 2020), xxxiv, and Lissa McCullough, The Religious Philosophy of Simone Weil: An Introduction. (London: I.B. Tauris, 2014), 41.

[iv] E.g., David Cockburn, “Self, World and God in Spinoza and Weil,” Studies in World Christianity, vol. 4, no. 2 (1998): 173-86, and Peter Winch, Simone Weil: “The Just Balance” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 120-132.

[v]André Comte-Sponville, Du tragique au matérialisme (et retour) : Vingt-six études sur Montaigne, Pascal, Spinoza, Nietzsche et quelques autres. (Paris : Presses Universitaires de France, 2015), 505-536.