Gravity and Grace
This collection of fragments explores the gravity of psychological and social mechanisms, attention and grace. Its brief formulations demand a reading that preserves their tensions.
Understanding the text
Gustave Thibon selected and arranged these notes after Weil’s death; the influential montage does not simply reproduce the order of her notebooks.
Key points
- 01
Gravity
Reactions and power relations can function as mechanisms imposed on us.
- 02
Attention
Attention suspends appropriation and receives what resists our expectations.
- 03
Grace
Grace names a transformation that cannot be manufactured by will alone.
Explore the ideas in depth
Attention and grace
This collection of fragments explores the gravity of psychological and social mechanisms, attention and grace. Its brief formulations demand a reading that preserves their tensions.
Gravity
Reactions and power relations can function as mechanisms imposed on us. Gustave Thibon selected and arranged these notes after Weil’s death; the influential montage does not simply reproduce the order of her notebooks.
Attention
Attention suspends appropriation and receives what resists our expectations. Compare fragments with their position in the Notebooks and distinguish editorial selection from a finished project.
Grace
Grace names a transformation that cannot be manufactured by will alone. Gustave Thibon selected and arranged these notes after Weil’s death; the influential montage does not simply reproduce the order of her notebooks.
Questions to carry into your reading
- What conditions make an action genuinely free?
- How can we attend to another person’s vulnerability?
Compare fragments with their position in the Notebooks and distinguish editorial selection from a finished project.
How to read it
Compare fragments with their position in the Notebooks and distinguish editorial selection from a finished project.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method ↗