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Are We Struggling for Justice?

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If the guiding question of ethics is “how should I live?,” then the guiding question of aesthetics might be “what is beauty?” For Simone Weil, these two questions have intertwined answers that turn on a like conceptual apparatus. Focussing on Weil's foremost ethical problem, the plight of the afflicted (malheur), this article offers an account of the philosophical basis to Weil's claim that, when truly recognized, beauty and affliction motivate the same form of experience. I argue that, for Weil, both the aesthetic and moral disposition are grounded in an experience of the real, an experience that both requires and compels the subject to the same attentive state. Finally, I address the charges that might be leveled at Weil for suggesting that our experience of beauty is the same as our experience of affliction, specifically arguing that rather than this experience leading to a form of passive aesthetic arrest, as the experience of beauty has typically been theorized to lead to, Weil understands the experience of beauty and affliction as fundamentally motivational toward the Good.
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This paper suggests that cultivating an aesthetics of attention in education can be a valuable affective tool for combatting the kind of numbness often associated with the resilience of racism. The notion of attention broadens the frame of analysis of racial violence by taking into consideration the affective and aesthetic dimensions of attention. The paper brings together Taylor Rogers’ recent theorization of ‘affective numbness’ and Simone Weil’s theory of attention to argue that the cultivation of an aesthetics of attention to others’ personhood has a potentially pivotal role in education to restore hearing of non-dominantly-situated persons’ cry of injustice. The article suggests pedagogical ways of engaging teachers and students affectively to resist their numbness in the classroom. The analysis argues that ‘paying attention’ to racial violence can contribute to creating ‘reparative futures’ in education, but care is needed to avoid re-traumatizing students of color and other traumatized students.
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The French philosopher Simone Weil (1909-1943) thought of geometry and algebra not as complementary modes of mathematical investigation, but rather as constituting morally opposed approaches: whereas geometry is the sine qua non of inquiry leading from ruthless passion to temperate perception, in accord with the human condition, algebra leads in the reverse direction, to excess and oppression. We explore the constituents of this argument, with their roots in classical Greek thought, and also how Simone Weil came to qualify it following her exchange with her brother, the mathematician André Weil.
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In Simone Weil: The Just Balance, Peter Winch suggests that Weil offers insights into the nature of justice that serve to undermine both the philosophical underpinnings of the Rawlsian scheme of distributive justice and the notion that justice could be about distribution at all. This chapter offers a Weilian critique of the underlying logic of distributive justice; namely, that to focus solely on distribution is both an inaccurate and a morally deforming way of thinking about justice. This argument is drawn from disparate parts of Weil’s oeuvre, which offers us a much-needed reorientation in our thinking about justice. The chapter argues that Weil’s thinking on the subject of justice has as its starting point the lived experience of suffering, which as embodied beings we cannot avoid. From there, the connection between the Weilian notions of supernatural justice, malheur (affliction), and attention is expounded.
Article
Is there a ethical dimension in cross‐border cooperation? Although EU border scholars and practitioners highlight how important is to consider the normative dimension of cross‐border cooperation for its successful management, the ethical dimension has been instead so far neglected and understudied because of the lack of an appropriate methodological and theoretical background. Thus, I aim to fill this scholarly and policy‐making gap by addressing this main question and by proposing an alternative ethical‐humanist approach to cross‐border cooperation. It is argued that the cross‐border governance ethical code elaborated here is the necessary lynchpin to promote and strengthen integration and cohesion through cross‐border cooperation within the EU. The outcome of this analysis is an alternative modern cross‐border cooperation roadmap that promotes social conditions through which human beings as well as their natural environment can harmoniously develop through the fulfilment of specific ethical values.
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This article addresses the importance of understanding the ethical values that underpin cross-border cooperation (CBC). This is done by elaborating a theoretical framework that focuses on the ethical dimension of CBC. A clear distinction is drawn between an ethical and a normative dimension of CBC. The article argues that European CBC policies lack a defined conceptualization of ethical, humanistic, and value-laden bases. By considering three ethical values—rootedness, empathy, and justice—underpinning European governance, this research finds that the operationalization of these values helps to overcome a consumeristic approach, according to which people are passive consumers of CBC. The analysis shows why and how the operationalization of these key ethical values develops a cross-border community where people feel responsible for the territory perceived as a “common good.” Spanish abstract: Este artículo aborda la importancia de comprender los valores éticos que sustentan las actividades de cooperación transfronteriza (CBC) mediante un marco teórico centrado en explorar la dimensión ética de CBC. Una distinción clara plantea la dimensión ética de la CBC frente a la normativa. El punto ciego de las políticas de CBC europeas yace en la ausencia de una conceptualización definida de las bases éticas y humanísticas. Los valores éticos de arraigo, empatía y justicia sustentan las actividades de CBC, y su operacionalización ayuda a superar la aproximación consumista. El análisis muestra por qué y cómo la operacionalización de estos valores éticos contribuye a desarrollar una comunidad transfronteriza en la que las personas se sientan responsables del territorio percibido como un “bien común”. French abstract: Pourquoi est-il important de mieux comprendre les valeurs qui sous-tendent les activités de coopération transfrontalière? Cet article aborde cette question à partir d’un cadre théorique centré sur l’exploration de la dimension éthique de la coopération transfrontalière en la distinguant de la dimension normative. Il soutient que la faiblesse des politiques européennes de coopération transfrontalière ne réside pas dans l’absence “normative”, mais dans le manque d’une conceptualisation précise de ses bases éthiques et humanistes. En considérant trois valeurs - l’enracinement, l’empathie et la justice - qui sous-tendent les activités de coopération transfrontalière, cette étude conclut que leur opérationnalisation aide à surmonter une approche consumériste de la coopération transfrontalière, selon laquelle les gens sont des consommateurs passifs. L’analyse montre pourquoi et comment l’opérationnalisation de ces trois valeurs contribue à développer une communauté transfrontalière dans laquelle les personnes se sentent responsables du territoire transfrontalier perçu comme un “bien commun”.
Article
For Simone Weil the invocation of ‘rights’ to address extreme human suffering–what she calls ‘affliction’–is ‘ludicrously inadequate’. Rights, Weil argues, invite a response, whereas what the afflicted require is not dialogue but simply to be heard. For Weil, hearing the ‘cry’ of the afflicted is the basis of all justice. The task of such a hearing is given over to Weil’s concept of attention, which demands an ethics of creative silence. This paper will argue that central to Weil’s ethics of attention, and thus the way she thinks we should show compassion and act justly, is the Kantian aesthetic concept of disinterestedness. I will argue that whilst Weil is influenced by Kant in multiple ways, it is his aesthetics, rather than his normative moral theory, that is most at play in her own ethical theory of attention.
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This chapter develops the central argument of the book. It proposes an African legal philosophy from a relational community ideal as a plausible and attractive way of defining disability justice. It argues that, although Africa’s rich customary and pluralist legal and intellectual heritage provides the most obvious foundation on which to define African legal philosophy, they are too heterogeneous and inherently descriptive to ground disability justice in necessary, sufficient, normative, general and universal terms. After demonstrating the difficulty with defining disability justice through Africa’s customary and pluralist heritage, the chapter outlines and defends a relational community conception of the ideal. Conceived as an African legal philosophy of disability justice, the proposal is offered as an alternative criterion for evaluating, criticising and modifying existing legal and political institutions, as well as for creating new ones to include and respond to the needs and dependencies of people with disabilities within the diverse communities across Africa.
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This paper introduces Simone Weil’s notion of reading and some of its implications to education. Weil’s philosophy, in particular her notion of attention has caught interest of some education scholars; however, the existing studies are still underdeveloped. Introducing Weil’s notion of reading, which has not been studied almost at all by educationists but its significance is well-recognized by Weil scholars, I intend to set forth a more nuanced understanding of Weil’s attention that is necessary to further discuss Weil’s potential contribution to education research. Attention to other people, hence love of others, is reframed as “reading better.” We read better not simply by purifying our reading through detachment and self-negation, which is how the notion of attention is often understood and thus found problematic, but by incorporating multiple perspectives (readings) and finding balance among them. Learning to read better, then, is not merely inward effort of detachment done through introspection, but it also necessarily involves outward effort of working with other people and the world. It is through interacting with others, we may learn our own readings, recognize others’ readings, and seeking for just balance among them. This latter element which has been greatly dismissed is indispensable for any serious discussions of Weil’s philosophy in education.
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Is there an ‘ethical code’ of values that underpins cross-border cooperation activities? By focusing on people as ‘agents’, the article argues that citizens and individuals in their integral development have been neglected so far when the development of cross-border spaces is scrutinized. This study aims to provide an alternative theoretical framework through which cross-border activities can be analysed and operationalized. This is done by synergically reading Benedict XVI’s ‘Caritas in Veritate’ and Sen’s ‘Development as Freedom’. It is suggested that the ethical dimension of cross-border cooperation activities needs to be scrutinized on the ground that cross-border spaces are neither ethically neutral, nor inherently inhuman and opposed to society. They are instead part and parcel of human activities and must be structured and governed in an ethical manner. It follows that ethical values are the means of cohesion in cross-border zones. Without including them in the analysis, real cohesion cannot be achieved.
Article
Résumé La non-directivité 2 est une attitude du thérapeute centré sur le client. C’est la matrice d’évaluation au sein de laquelle a lieu la coalescence des conditions nodales : acceptation, compréhension empathique et congruence. Comment le fait de se départir de cette attitude crée une différence dans la manière dont le client fait l’expérience de la psychothérapie, tel est le thème de cet article. Un extrait de thérapie centrée sur le focusing 3 suggère les effets de la directivité qui réinscrit l’autorité du thérapeute et mine le « pouvoir de refus du client ». Selon la thérapie non-directive centrée sur le client, il est établi que le client est le propre architecte du processus de sa thérapie, ce qui n’est pas le cas des thérapies directives et expérientielles.
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Simone Weil's work has always been appreciated for its evocative beauty, but not always for its potential contributions to political thought. In this essay, we engage in a reappraisal of her political thought, and of her relevance to contemporary politics, by way of her discussion of the power of words. Weil shares much with contemporary approaches that view the world as a text to be interpreted. But for Weil, the power of interpretation carries with it an illusion, exemplified in Weil's example of Achilles watching over his war-work, in which the world can be seen, measured, and shaped according to one's will. For Weil, the illusion of control that accompanies this perspective is undermined by our encounter with a world of physical causes and sensations that impact us, quite without us being able to control them.
Article
This paper aims to expose the philosophical and cultural mechanisms, which allow some forms of western religion (in this case mainstream Christianity) to join hands with western capitalism in the oppression of women and of the needy. Focusing on the example of the US, this paper claims that both mainstream Christian religion and capitalism perpetuate and entrench discrimination against women and the oppression of the needy through the use of the cultural/philosophical dichotomy between love and justice and its corollary dichotomy between private and public. Against this background, the second part of the paper examines several notions of love and justice, and offers a philosophical alternative to the dichotomous understanding of the two which is based on our claim that neither love nor justice are complete without the other and suggests a combined understanding of these concepts. Finally, the paper examines the practical implications of such a theoretical alternative for the social and cultural structures of the capitalist state, religion and the family.
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