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Single Idea 23855
[filed under theme 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 1. Grounding / a. Nature of grounding
]
Full Idea
What is sovereign in this world is determinateness, limit. Eternal Wisdom imprisons this universe in a network, a web of determinations.
Gist of Idea
Creation produced a network or web of determinations
Source
Simone Weil (The Need for Roots [1943], III 'Growth')
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'The Need for Roots' [Routledge 2002], p.282
A Reaction
Love this, because I take 'determination' to be the defining relationship in ontology. It covers both physical causation and abstract necessities.
The
156 ideas
from Simone Weil
24207
|
Observing oneself in the present is impossible, and oneself in the past may be wrong
[Weil]
|
24208
|
Bodies classify things prior to thought (such as chicks knowing what hits of the egg to peck)
[Weil]
|
24209
|
Senses are unaware of each other, and give isolated information
[Weil]
|
24210
|
Abstraction is just the character of generalisation
[Weil]
|
24211
|
Associations are not lawlike, because we make arbitrary choice of which representation matters
[Weil]
|
24212
|
We don't infer the straight from the twisted, because judging the twisted needs the straight
[Weil]
|
24214
|
Pragmatists are right that science is action on nature - but it must be methodical
[Weil]
|
24213
|
Explanations always concern how one thing changes into another
[Weil]
|
24215
|
We call experience 'objective' when it seems necessary
[Weil]
|
24216
|
Everyone is devoted to morality, if they don't have to implement it
[Weil]
|
24217
|
History is scientific when it relies on accurate documents
[Weil]
|
24218
|
People can't be citizens in public life if they are oppressed in economic life
[Weil]
|
24219
|
My neighbour's pleasure can't be an end for me
[Weil]
|
24220
|
As the highest value, God cannot be proved
[Weil]
|
24221
|
Equality is the result of unlimited freedom
[Weil]
|
24222
|
If we ignore all our thoughts of the past and the future, there is nothing left of the present
[Weil]
|
23814
|
Every human yearns for an unattainable transcendent good
[Weil]
|
23815
|
We cannot equally respect what is unequal, so equal respect needs a shared ground
[Weil]
|
23816
|
Attention to a transcendent reality motivates a duty to foster the good of humanity
[Weil]
|
23818
|
We have liberty in the space between nature and accepted authority
[Weil]
|
23817
|
We need both equality (to attend to human needs) and hierarchy (as a scale of responsibilities)
[Weil]
|
23819
|
Deliberate public lying should be punished
[Weil]
|
23822
|
We all need to partipate in public tasks, and take some initiative
[Weil]
|
23821
|
Crime should be punished, to bring the perpetrator freely back to morality
[Weil]
|
23820
|
People need personal and collective property, and a social class lacking property is shameful
[Weil]
|
23823
|
Life needs risks to avoid sickly boredom
[Weil]
|
23824
|
Where human needs are satisfied we find happiness, friendship and beauty
[Weil]
|
23873
|
Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous
[Weil]
|
23834
|
Friendship is partly universal - the love of a person is like the ideal of loving everyone
[Weil]
|
23889
|
Among the Greeks Aristotle is the only philosopher in the modern style
[Weil]
|
23892
|
The only legitimate proof of God by order derives from beauty
[Weil]
|
24188
|
It is absurd to say that evil proves life is worthless. If it were, why would evil matter?
[Weil]
|
24187
|
Without worldly affliction, we'd think this is paradise
[Weil]
|
24192
|
My love makes me believe in God; the inconceivability of this God makes me disbelieve
[Weil]
|
24193
|
If we focus on the good, our whole soul is drawn towards it
[Weil]
|
23826
|
Beauty, goodness and truth are only achieved by applying full attention
[Weil]
|
23825
|
We seek truth only because it is good
[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]
|
23807
|
The collective is the one and only object of false idolatry
[Weil]
|
23810
|
Charity is the only love, and you can feel that for a country (a place with traditions), but not a nation
[Weil]
|
24198
|
Perfect works of art seem to be essentially anonymous
[Weil]
|
24191
|
We want our values to be eternal
[Weil]
|
24189
|
The criterion of the real is contradictions
[Weil]
|
24190
|
Anarchists thought (hopelessly) that empowering the oppressed would end evil
[Weil]
|
24180
|
We just see immortality as prolongation of life, making death meaningless
[Weil]
|
24181
|
We need love to have a good death
[Weil]
|
24179
|
We should never desire the immortality of the people we love
[Weil]
|
23833
|
The good is a nothingness, and yet real
[Weil]
|
24178
|
We must leave on one side the ordinary 'consolations' of religion
[Weil]
|
24186
|
If the world lacked evil, then the evil would be in our desires, which would be worse
[Weil]
|
24204
|
The past is known to us but unreachable - a perfect image of eternal, supernatural reality
[Weil]
|
24203
|
Atheistic materialism must be revolutionary, because its good is in the future
[Weil]
|
24201
|
Social order is equilibrium of forces, which must be corrected when imbalanced
[Weil]
|
24202
|
Obedience to an illegitimate ruler is a nightmare
[Weil]
|
24200
|
A citizen is defined by their subjection to the laws
[Weil]
|
24199
|
There is no oppression, or oppressive class; there is only an oppressive society
[Weil]
|
24194
|
Wanting new discoveries blocks good thinking about what has been discovered
[Weil]
|
24195
|
Don't reject opinions; arrange them all in a hierarchy
[Weil]
|
24185
|
Friendship is a virtue, not a state we should dream of
[Weil]
|
23765
|
The soul is the intrinsic value of a human
[Weil]
|
24197
|
Power and money are supreme means, thus blinding people to ends
[Weil]
|
24183
|
We should only perform the good actions which we can't help doing
[Weil]
|
24182
|
We must be obedient, and love necessity
[Weil]
|
24184
|
What matters about an action is not its aim, but the origin of its compulsion
[Weil]
|
24196
|
Loving others as ourselves implies varied love, and varied suffering
[Weil]
|
24177
|
Higher emotions have less energy, and actions may need the lower emotions
[Weil]
|
24205
|
Monotony is beautiful as a reflection of eternity, or atrocious as unvarying perpetuity
[Weil]
|
24206
|
Revolution (not religion) is the opium of the people
[Weil]
|
23811
|
If effort is from necessity rather than for a good, it is slavery
[Weil]
|
23747
|
What is sacred is not a person, but the whole physical human being
[Weil]
|
23748
|
The sacred in every human is their expectation of good rather than evil
[Weil]
|
23749
|
The problem of the collective is not suppression of persons, but persons erasing themselves
[Weil]
|
23750
|
It is not more money which the wretched members of society need
[Weil]
|
23751
|
Rights are asserted contentiously, and need the backing of force
[Weil]
|
23752
|
Giving centrality to rights stifles all impulses of charity
[Weil]
|
23753
|
People absurdly claim an equal share of things which are essentially privileged
[Weil]
|
23754
|
The only choice is between supernatural good, or evil
[Weil]
|
23755
|
Genius and love of truth are always accompanied by great humility
[Weil]
|
23756
|
The mind is imprisoned and limited by language, restricting our awareness of wider thoughts
[Weil]
|
23758
|
Beauty is an attractive mystery, leaving nothing to be desired
[Weil]
|
23757
|
The spirit of justice needs the full attention of truth, and that attention is love
[Weil]
|
23761
|
Justice (concerning harm) is distinct from rights (concerning inequality)
[Weil]
|
23759
|
Everything which originates in love is beautiful
[Weil]
|
23760
|
All we need are the unity of justice, truth and beauty
[Weil]
|
23762
|
Evil is transmitted by comforts and pleasures, but mostly by doing harm to people
[Weil]
|
23764
|
The only thing in society worse than crime is repressive justice
[Weil]
|
23763
|
Punishment aims at the good for men who don't desire it
[Weil]
|
23812
|
Force is what turns man into a thing, and ultimately into a corpse
[Weil]
|
23813
|
Only people who understand force, and don't respect it, are capable of justice
[Weil]
|
23901
|
Relationships depend on equality, so unequal treatment kills them
[Weil]
|
23902
|
I attach little importance to immortality, which is an undecidable fact, and irrelevant to us
[Weil]
|
23903
|
When we admire a work, we see ourselves as its creator
[Weil]
|
23904
|
The cruelty of the Old Testament put me off Christianity
[Weil]
|
23870
|
Decentralisation is only possible by co-operation between strong and weak - which is absurd
[Weil]
|
23871
|
No central authority can initiate decentralisation
[Weil]
|
23861
|
Marx showed that capitalist oppression, because of competition, is unstoppable
[Weil]
|
23863
|
Only individual people of good will can achieve social progress
[Weil]
|
23864
|
Inequality could easily be mitigated, if it were not for the struggle for power
[Weil]
|
23865
|
Morality would improve if people could pursue private interests
[Weil]
|
23866
|
In oppressive societies the scope of actual control is extended by a religion of power
[Weil]
|
23867
|
After a bloody revolution the group which already had the power comes to the fore
[Weil]
|
23868
|
The pleasure of completing tasks motivates just as well as the whip of slavery
[Weil]
|
23869
|
In the least evil societies people can think, control community life, and be autonomous
[Weil]
|
23898
|
Those who say immorality is not an aesthetic criterion must show that all criteria are aesthetic
[Weil]
|
23877
|
Most people won't question an idea's truth if they depend on it
[Weil]
|
23878
|
Weakness of will is the inadequacy of the original impetus to carry through the action
[Weil]
|
23879
|
In a violent moral disagreement, it can't be that both sides are just following social morality
[Weil]
|
23880
|
When war was a profession, customary morality justified any act of war
[Weil]
|
23843
|
Even the poorest should feel collective ownership, and participation in grand display
[Weil]
|
23841
|
By making money the sole human measure, inequality has become universal
[Weil]
|
23836
|
Obligations only bind individuals, not collectives
[Weil]
|
23837
|
Respect is our only obligation, which can only be expressed through deeds, not words
[Weil]
|
23835
|
People have duties, and only have rights because of the obligations of others to them
[Weil]
|
23839
|
A lifelong head of society should only be a symbol, not a ruler
[Weil]
|
23842
|
Party politics in a democracy can't avoid an anti-democratic party
[Weil]
|
23838
|
The need for order stands above all others, and is understood via the other needs
[Weil]
|
23840
|
A citizen should be able to understand the whole of society
[Weil]
|
23848
|
The aesthete's treatment of beauty as amusement is sacrilegious; beauty should nourish
[Weil]
|
23850
|
The soldier-civilian distinction should be abolished; every citizen is committed to a war
[Weil]
|
23849
|
Religion should quietly suffuse all human life with its light
[Weil]
|
23847
|
Socialism tends to make a proletariat of the whole population
[Weil]
|
23845
|
The capitalists neglect the people and the nation, and even their own interests
[Weil]
|
23846
|
Culture is an instrument for creating an ongoing succession of teachers
[Weil]
|
23844
|
The most important human need is to have multiple roots
[Weil]
|
23854
|
Beauty is the proof of what is good
[Weil]
|
23851
|
Education is essentially motivation
[Weil]
|
23852
|
To punish people we must ourselves be innocent - but that undermines the desire to punish
[Weil]
|
23853
|
Truth is not a object we love - it is the radiant manifestation of reality
[Weil]
|
23855
|
Creation produced a network or web of determinations
[Weil]
|
23896
|
We see our character as a restricting limit, but also as an unshakable support
[Weil]
|
23893
|
We don't see character in a single moment, but only over a period of time
[Weil]
|
23894
|
The concept of character is at the centre of morality
[Weil]
|
23895
|
We modify our character by placing ourselves in situations, or by attending to what seems trivial
[Weil]
|
23881
|
All thought about values is philosophical, and thought about anything else is not philosophy
[Weil]
|
23883
|
Minds essentially and always strive towards value
[Weil]
|
23882
|
Ends, unlike means, cannot be defined, which is why people tend to pursue means
[Weil]
|
23884
|
Truth is a value of thought
[Weil]
|
23885
|
Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge
[Weil]
|
23886
|
Systems are not unique to each philosopher. The platonist tradition is old and continuous
[Weil]
|
23887
|
Art (like philosophy) establishes a relation between world and self, and between oneself and others
[Weil]
|
23888
|
Knowledge is beyond question, as an unavoidable component of thinking
[Weil]
|
23832
|
We both desire what is beautiful, and want it to remain as it is
[Weil]
|
23857
|
People in power always try to increase their power
[Weil]
|
23858
|
War is perpetuated by its continual preparations
[Weil]
|
23859
|
True democracy is the subordination of society to the individual
[Weil]
|
23856
|
Spontaneous movements are powerless against organised repression
[Weil]
|
23860
|
Even if a drowning man is doomed, he should keep swimming to the last
[Weil]
|
23827
|
Modern wars are fought in the name of empty words which are given capital letters
[Weil]
|
23828
|
National prestige consists of behaving as if you could beat the others in a war
[Weil]
|
23829
|
National leaders want to preserve necessary order - but always the existing order
[Weil]
|
23830
|
A group is only dangerous if it endorses an abstract entity
[Weil]
|
23831
|
The essence of power is illusory prestige
[Weil]
|
23899
|
The secret of art is that beauty is a just blend of unity and its opposite
[Weil]
|
23900
|
Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together
[Weil]
|
23897
|
Once money is the main aim, society needs everyone to think wealth is possible
[Weil]
|