Abstract

This thesis develops a consistent view of Simone Weil's philosophical anthropology through a study of her life and thought, and how one informs the other. ;I demonstrate that there is a change in Simone Weil's conception of human nature from her early thought to her later thought. However, my thesis shows that this change is a development rather than a divergence in her thinking. The thesis demonstrates that Simone Weil's philosophical anthropology remains consistently dualistic throughout her writings. This dualism changes from a mind-body dualism to a dualism that places mind within a carnal part of the soul, and establishes an eternal part of the soul as the essence of human nature. ;My exposition demonstrates the conception of human nature developed in her early work. Then I show how this conception forms the basis of a critique of Marxism. I present her position that a liberated society for the workers must be organized around the dualistic conception of human nature. Work with a method is conceived as an intellectual, physical, and ultimately, spiritual practice that restores labour to a principal place in a free society. ;I demonstrate that a free society based on Simone Weil's philosophical anthropology came to mean to her a redirecting of Western culture so as to include the other dimensions of human nature: the continuity of time transmitted through tradition of identical thought; an understanding of our place in the order of the universe; and a true conception of our relation to God. ;The fully developed vision of the human being in Simone Weil's later work includes a conception of the State as a metaxu . The function of the State as metaxu is elaborated in an inquiry into the uprooted human and political conditions of her time. ;This thesis maintains that Simone Weil holds, throughout her work, to the ideal of a society that enhances human nature by making manual labour its spiritual core