Ep. 250: Simone Weil on Human Needs (Part One)
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2020
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On "The Needs of the Soul" from The Need for Roots (1943) and "Meditation on Obedience and Liberty" (1937).
What are our needs that should then drive what kind of society would be best for us? Weil says we need liberty yet obedience, equality yet hierarchy, security yet risk... and none of these words mean quite what you'd think. And to start off, why do the many obey the few?
Don't wait for Part Two; get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL! Support for this discussion came from listener Charles, who dedicates it to Temple Grandin.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The partial examine life depends on your support. |
| 0:02.6 | To find out how to do that and ways that are cheap or even free, |
| 0:05.6 | go to partialexamenlife.com slash support. |
| 0:16.2 | You're listening to The Partially Examined Life, a podcast by some guys who are at one point |
| 0:20.3 | said on doing philosophy for a living, but then thought better of it. |
| 0:23.6 | Our question for episode 250 is what exactly are humanities non-physical needs? |
| 0:30.0 | Our texts for today are essays by Simone Vé, the needs of the soul written around 1943, |
| 0:35.7 | and a meditation on obedience and liberty from 1937. |
| 0:39.6 | For more information and links to these texts, please visit partialexamenlife.com. |
| 0:43.8 | This is Mark Linton-Meyer and Madison, Wisconsin, and like Simone Vé, |
| 0:47.0 | my kink is order and obedience. |
| 0:49.6 | This is Seth Pascon retaining the right to complete, unlimited, and unrestricted freedom of opinion |
| 0:54.4 | in Austin, Texas. |
| 0:55.8 | This is Wes Haul, one proactively recanting everything we're about to say in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
| 1:02.4 | This is Dylan Casey feasting on the indispensable foods of the human soul in Madison, Wisconsin. |
| 1:08.4 | He put it that way. Sounds kind. |
| 1:10.5 | Gross. |
| 1:13.3 | My middle name's Hannibal, but only a spiritual Hannibal. |
| 1:19.7 | So this is a recording that was specifically commissioned by one of our listeners who reached out |
| 1:23.6 | to us and gave us a lot of money. His name is Charles. He's dedicating it to Temple Grandin, |
| 1:29.6 | whose work he says is in the spirit of Simone Vé. |
| 1:32.7 | Oh, that's interesting. |
... |
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