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Simone Weil
(3 Feb 1909 - 24 Aug 1943)
French philosopher and social activist.
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Science Quotes by Simone Weil (11 quotes)
A science which does not bring us nearer to God is worthless.
— Simone Weil
In Gravity and Grace, (1947, 1952), 105.
Algebra and money are essentially levelers; the first intellectually, the second effectively.
— Simone Weil
In Gravity and Grace (1952), 209.
In all that has to do with the relations between man and the supernatural, we have to seek for a more than mathematical precision; this should be more exact than science.
— Simone Weil
In Gravity and Grace, (1947, 1952), 186.
Money, mechanization, algebra. The three monsters of contemporary civilization. Complete analogy.
— Simone Weil
In Gravity and Grace (1952), 209.
Science has now been for a long time—and to an ever-increasing extent—a collective enterprise. Actually, new results are always, in fact, the work of specific individuals; but, save perhaps for rare exceptions, the value of any result depends on such a complex set of interrelations with past discoveries and possible future researches that even the mind of the inventor cannot embrace the whole.
— Simone Weil
In Oppression and Liberty (1955, 1958), 109.
Science is voiceless; it is the scientists who talk.
— Simone Weil
From 'Reflections on Quantum Theory', as translated in Richard Rees (ed.), On Science, Necessity and the Love of God (1968), 57.
Science only offers three kinds of interest: 1. Technical applications. 2. A game of chess. 3. A road to God. (Attractions are added to the game of chess in the shape of competitions, prizes, and medals.)
— Simone Weil
In Gravity and Grace, (1947, 1952), 186-187.
Science today will either have to seek a source of inspiration higher than itself or perish.
— Simone Weil
In Gravity and Grace, (1947, 1952), 186.
There is no area in our minds reserved for superstition, such as the Greeks had in their mythology; and superstition, under cover of an abstract vocabulary, has revenged itself by invading the entire realm of thought. Our science is like a store filled with the most subtle intellectual devices for solving the most complex problems, and yet we are almost incapable of applying the elementary principles of rational thought. In every sphere, we seem to have lost the very elements of intelligence: the ideas of limit, measure, degree, proportion, relation, comparison, contingency, interdependence, interrelation of means and ends. To keep to the social level, our political universe is peopled exclusively by myths and monsters; all it contains is absolutes and abstract entities. This is illustrated by all the words of our political and social vocabulary: nation, security, capitalism, communism, fascism, order, authority, property, democracy. We never use them in phrases such as: There is democracy to the extent that… or: There is capitalism in so far as… The use of expressions like “to the extent that” is beyond our intellectual capacity. Each of these words seems to represent for us an absolute reality, unaffected by conditions, or an absolute objective, independent of methods of action, or an absolute evil; and at the same time we make all these words mean, successively or simultaneously, anything whatsoever. Our lives are lived, in actual fact, among changing, varying realities, subject to the casual play of external necessities, and modifying themselves according to specific conditions within specific limits; and yet we act and strive and sacrifice ourselves and others by reference to fixed and isolated abstractions which cannot possibly be related either to one another or to any concrete facts. In this so-called age of technicians, the only battles we know how to fight are battles against windmills.
— Simone Weil
From 'The Power of Words', collected in Siân Miles (ed.), Simone Weil: An Anthology (2000), 222-223.
To us, men of the West, a very strange thing happened at the turn of the century; without noticing it, we lost science, or at least the thing that had been called by that name for the last four centuries. What we now have in place of it is something different, radically different, and we don’t know what it is. Nobody knows what it is.
— Simone Weil
From La Science et Nous (1941), translated as 'Classical Science and After', in Richard Rees (ed.), On Science, Necessity and the Love of God (1968), as quoted and cited in Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993), 809-810. Also seen translated as, “Something happened to the people of the Western world at the beginning of the century, something quite strange: we lost science without even being aware of it, or at least, what had been called science for the last four centuries. What we now have under this name is something else, something radically different, and we do not know what it is. Probably no one knows what it is”, collected in Simone Weil: Late Philosophical Writings (2015), Chap. 10.
When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality, they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man’s name live for thousands of years. But above this level, far above, separated by an abyss, is the level where the highest things are achieved. These things are essentially anonymous.
— Simone Weil
In Simone Weil and Siân Miles (ed.), 'Human Personality', Simone Weil: An Anthology (2000), 55.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
