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Full Idea
There are two goods - one which is the opposite of evil, and one which is the absolute. …That which we want is the absolute good. That which is within our reach is the good which is correlated with evil.
Gist of Idea
There are two goods - the absolute good we want, and the reachable opposite of evil
Source
Simone Weil (Gravity and Grace (9 extracts) [1943], p.142)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'An Anthology' [Penguin 1986], p.142
A Reaction
Elsewhere she seems in tune with the thought of Nietzsche (whom she despised) that good and evil are false social constructs which are quite different from healthy values. Weil, of course, sees the absolute as transcendent.
| 23807 | The collective is the one and only object of false idolatry [Weil] |
| 23808 | There are two goods - the absolute good we want, and the reachable opposite of evil [Weil] |
| 23809 | Our only social duty is to try to limit evil [Weil] |
| 23810 | Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation [Weil] |
| 23811 | If effort is from necessity rather than for a good, it is slavery [Weil] |
| 23825 | We seek truth only because it is good [Weil] |
| 23826 | Beauty, goodness and truth are only achieved by applying full attention [Weil] |
| 23831 | The essence of power is illusory prestige [Weil] |
| 23830 | A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity [Weil] |
| 23833 | The good is a nothingness, and yet real [Weil] |
| 23765 | The soul is the intrinsic value of a human [Weil] |