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Full Idea
Our only duty with regard to the social is to try to limit the evil of it.
Gist of Idea
Our only social duty is to try to limit evil
Source
Simone Weil (Gravity and Grace (9 extracts) [1943], p.143)
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'An Anthology' [Penguin 1986], p.142
A Reaction
This is one of Weil's occasional remarks that have an anarchist flavour. I increasingly sympathise with this less idealistic view as I get older.
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] |