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The Need for Roots
Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind
Series: Routledge Classics
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Check link for latest rating. ( 1,414 ratings, 213 reviews)
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Format: Hardback
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This book is suited for readers interested in religious philosophy, social ethics, and political theory, as well as those seeking thoughtful perspectives on community and human rights.
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See moreIn this, her most famous book, Weil reflects on the importance of religious and political social structures in the life of the individual.
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Description
Hailed by Andre Gide as the patron saint of all outsiders, Simone Weil's short life was ample testimony to her beliefs. In 1942 she fled France along with her family, going firstly to America. She then moved back to London in order to work with de Gaulle.
Published posthumously, The Need for Roots was a direct result of this collaboration. Its purpose was to help rebuild France after the war. In this, her most famous book, Weil reflects on the importance of religious and political social structures in the life of the individual.
She wrote that one of the basic obligations we have as human beings is to not let another suffer from hunger. Equally as important, however, is our duty towards our community: we may have declared various human rights, but we have overlooked the obligations and this has left us self-righteous and rootless.
She could easily have been issuing a direct warning to us today, the citizens of Century 21.
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780415271011
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 12 October 2001
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Routledge
Edition: 2nd edition
Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 750g
Pages: 320
About the Author
Simone Weil (1909-1943). A political theorist and activist, a revolutionary and a philosopher and religious mystic. She starved herself to death in protest against the Nazi occupation of France.
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The Need for Roots
A new translation of Simone Weil's best-known work—a political, philosophical, and spiritual treatise on what human life could be. An icon of twentieth-century French philosophy, Simone Weil was described by Andre Gide as 'the patron saint of all outsiders' and by Albert Camus as 'the only great spirit of our time'. In this, one of her last and best-known works,...Paperback$3200Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
19% offSimone Weil: An Anthology
This collection captures the essence of a remarkable woman, one of the foremost thinkers of our century. Simone Weil was one of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century—a philosopher, theologian, critic, sociologist and political activist. This anthology spans the wide range of her thought and includes an extract from her best-known work The Need for Roots, exploring the ways...Paperback$2200Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Power of Words
There are certain words which possess, in themselves, when properly used, a virtue which illumines and lifts up towards the good. In these selected writings by Simone Weil—philosopher, activist, mystic—she explores the influence of language employed by the powerful, an individual's rights and responsibilities, and foods of the soul such as liberty, truth, security, and equality. Provocative, eloquent, and deeply...Paperback$2100Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Life in Letters
The inspiring letters of philosopher, mystic, and freedom fighter Simone Weil to her family, presented for the first time in English. Now in the pantheon of great thinkers, Simone Weil (1909–1943) lived largely in the shadows, searching for her spiritual home while bearing witness to the violence that devastated Europe twice in her brief lifetime. The letters she wrote to...Hardback$7599Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 3-4 weeks -
Gravity and Grace
Simone Weil, the French philosopher, political activist, and religious mystic, was little known when she died young in 1943. Four years later, the philosopher-farmer Gustave Thibon compiled La pesanteur et la grace from the notebooks she left in his keeping. In 1952, this English translation accelerated the fame and influence of Simone Weil. The striking aphorisms in Gravity and Grace...Paperback$7275Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
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Pre-orderWhat We Owe One Another
We speak of rights. Simone Weil speaks of obligations. In this austere and devastating essay, she argues that justice does not begin with claims, but with what we owe to the vulnerable core in every human being. Against entitlement and abstraction, she offers something rarer: attention, restraint, and moral seriousness.Paperback$800Unit price /UnavailableOut 25 Aug 2026Pre-order -
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