Between The Earthly Freedom And Freedom Of Heaven

With the development of modern science, the relationship between necessity and freedom comes to the forefront in the philosophy. From the earlier point of view of Simone Weil, the development of science does not bring more freedom to the human being,but more grave enslavement and puts the human being and the material forces out of balance. Regaining freedom signifies restoring the balance, and the rebuilding of the personal autonomy and initiative.Each person is justified to have access to freedom if a new science is available to him,who is entitled to understand necessity by himself .At the earlier intellectual plane, Weil undertakes to reflect on the nature of the modern science and critify its conditions, but she is still a modern-minded thinker. Weil overcomes the barrier imposed by the question of the human power to rule the material world, and is at the sight of what matters, that is, the human destiny.The dissertation is composed of eight chapters. The first chapter presents Weil's career , works and the intellectual tradition accepted by her.The resume shows her social concern about the modern crisis originates in her earlier philosophical interest. The second chapter is to survey Weil's thought on the outcome of the modern production, that is, the deprivation of freedom. In the third chapter, we will explore Weil's conception of oppression, in connection with its birth, in its relation to freedom and truth. This chapter also gives an introduction to the way to eradicate oppression as such, the way shown by Weil, and to its relevance to the contemporary politics. The fourth chapter analyses weil's thought on war and discusses its role in Weil's intellectual turn, since the problem of war is crucial to understanding Weil's political philosophy. The fifth chapter traces the development of Weil's conception of necessity. The result confirms the connection of necessity with freedom, although Weil's intellectual transitions may obscure it. With the conception of necessity stretching to its extreme, freedom can not hold sway anyway in the earthly world, even in the realm kept for miracles, but freedom encounters the opportunity to re-understand itself. The sixth chapter furthers the discussion in the light of the contemporary reality. The study of Weil's moral insight implied in her political philosophy, in comparison with Isaiah Berlin's moral pluralism,helps understanding a hard and authentic world, understanding the hard and authentic freedom revealed by her.The seventh chapter focuces on Weil's suggestion about solving the modern dilemma by returning to the ancient science. This chapter presents her suggestion ,taking into account of her view about the social issues brought about by modern science, such as the ruined freedom and the social crisis. The last chapter underlines the role of labor in Weil's philosophy. Labor offers the ideal and historical context, in which freedom makes sense. Therefore the multi-dimensional labor enables the development of the conception of freedom and makes it possible to understand Weil's view of freedom from her earlier period to later period as co-related.Weil's political philosophy is a response to the modern situation,echoing the eternal philosophical themes.