Published: Wed 26 November 2025
By Luigi Peñaranda
In Thoughts .
tags: philosophy Simone Weil grace
"Généralement ce que nous attendons des autres dépend de l'effet de la pesanteur sur nous-mêmes; ce que nous recevons d'eux dépend de l'effet de la pesanteur sur eux. Parfois (par hasard) les deux coïncident, souvent non."
“Generally, what we expect of others depends on the effect of gravity upon ourselves, what we receive from them depends on the effect of gravity upon them. Sometimes (by chance) the two coincide, often they do not.”
For Simone Weil, there are automatic forces governing human behavior, analogous to physical gravity. Our expectations of others do not constitute a transparent openness toward ‘the others’, but rather the effect of our own need, lack, desire, and emptiness projected onto them. Likewise, what we receive from others depends on their own lacks and needs. Expectations and responses are gravitational forces of two bodies that tend to exert their attraction in opposite directions. Only occasionally do they coincide.
These gravitational tendencies entail degradation, loss of energy, moral entropy, and descent. They are a downward pull, a force capable of unbalancing and debasing.
References:
Weil, S. (1997). Gravity and grace (E. Craufurd, Trans.). Routledge.