Simone Weil

This evening, at The Buddhist House, we had a seminar about Simone Weil (1909-1943), regarded by many as one of the foremost religious thinkers of the 20th century. We were particularly looking at how a person can be simultaneously a genius and a misfit, a much loved figure and an outcast, skilled and inept. Weil came from a secular Jewish backgroud in France and was exceptionally intelligent, yet over shadowed by her brother Andre who was even more intellectually gifted and became one of the great methematicians of the century. When Simone and Andre met they would converse in ancient Greek, just one of many languages she learnt. Simone early developed intense feelings about social oppression and