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Simone Weil

Simone Adolphine Weil (, ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Since 1995, more than 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work.

After her graduation from formal education, Weil became a teacher. She taught intermittently throughout the 1930s, taking several breaks because of poor health and in order to devote herself to political activism. Such work saw her assisting in the trade union movement, taking the side of the anarchists known as the Durruti Column in the Spanish Civil War, and spending more than a year working as a labourer, mostly in car factories, so that she could better understand the working class.

Weil became increasingly religious and inclined towards mysticism as her life progressed. She wrote throughout her life, although most of her writings did not attract much attention until after her death. In the 1950s and 1960s, her work became famous in continental Europe and throughout the English-speaking world. Her thought has continued to be the subject of extensive scholarship across a wide range of fields.

The mathematician André Weil was her brother.

Early life

Weil was born in her parents' apartment in Paris on 3 February 1909, the daughter of Bernard Weil (1872–1955), a medical doctor from an agnostic Alsatian Jewish background, who moved to Paris after the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, and Salomea "Selma" Reinherz (1879–1965), who was born into a Jewish family in Rostov-on-Don and raised in Belgium. According to Osmo Pekonen, "the family name Weil came to be when many Levis in the Napoleonic era changed their names this way, by anagram." Weil was a healthy baby for her first six months but then suffered a severe attack of appendicitis; thereafter, she struggled with poor health throughout her life. She was the younger of her parents' two children. Her brother was mathematician André Weil (1906–1998), with whom she would always enjoy a close relationship. Their parents were fairly affluent and raised their children in an attentive and supportive atmosphere.

Weil was distressed by her father having to leave home for several years after being drafted to serve in the First World War. Eva Fogelman, Robert Coles and several other scholars believe that this experience may have contributed to the exceptionally strong altruism which Weil displayed throughout her life. From her childhood home, Weil acquired an obsession with cleanliness; in her later life she would sometimes speak of her "disgustingness" and think that others would see her this way, even though in her youth she had been considered highly attractive. Weil was generally highly affectionate, but she almost always avoided any form of physical contact, even with female friends.

According to her friend and biographer, Simone Pétrement, Weil decided early in life that she would need to adopt masculine qualities and sacrifice opportunities for love affairs in order to fully pursue her vocation to improve social conditions for the disadvantaged. From her late teenage years, Weil would generally disguise her "fragile beauty" by adopting a masculine appearance, hardly ever using makeup and often wearing men's clothes.

Intellectual life
Weil was a precocious student, proficient in Ancient Greek by age 12. She later learned Sanskrit so that she could read the Bhagavad Gita in the original. Like the Renaissance thinker Pico della Mirandola, her interests in other religions were universal, and she attempted to understand each religious tradition as an expression of transcendent wisdom.

As a teenager, Weil studied at the Lycée Henri IV under the tutelage of her admired teacher Émile Chartier, more commonly known as "Alain". Her first attempt at the entrance examination for the École Normale Supérieure in June 1927 ended in failure, due to her low marks in history. In 1928 she was successful in gaining admission. She finished first in the exam for the certificate of "General Philosophy and Logic"; Simone de Beauvoir finished second. During these years, Weil attracted much attention with her radical opinions. She was called the "Red virgin", and even "The Martian" by her admired mentor.

At the École Normale Supérieure, she studied philosophy, earning her DES (, roughly equivalent to an M.A.) in 1931 with a thesis under the title "Science et perception dans Descartes" ("Science and Perception in Descartes"). She received her agrégation that same year. Weil taught philosophy at a secondary school for girls in Le Puy and teaching was her primary employment during her short life.

Political activism

She often became involved in political action out of sympathy with the working class. In 1915, when she was only six years old, she refused sugar in solidarity with the troops entrenched along the Western Front. In 1919, at 10 years of age, she declared herself a Bolshevik. In her late teens, she became involved in the workers' movement. She wrote political tracts, marched in demonstrations and advocated workers' rights. At this time, she was a Marxist, pacifist and trade unionist. While teaching in Le Puy, she became involved in local political activity, supporting the unemployed and striking workers despite criticism. Weil never formally joined the French Communist Party, and in her twenties she became increasingly critical of Marxism. According to Pétrement, she was one of the first to identify a new form of oppression not anticipated by Marx, where élite bureaucrats could make life just as miserable for ordinary people as did the most exploitative capitalists.

In 1932, Weil visited Germany to help Marxist activists who were at the time considered to be the strongest and best organised communists in Western Europe, but Weil considered them no match for the then up-and-coming fascists. When she returned to France, her political friends there dismissed her fears, thinking Germany would continue to be controlled by the centrists or by those to the left. After Hitler rose to power in 1933, Weil spent much of her time trying to help German communists fleeing his regime. Weil would sometimes publish articles about social and economic issues, including "Oppression and Liberty," as well as numerous short articles for trade union journals. This work criticised popular Marxist thought and gave a pessimistic account of the limits of both capitalism and socialism. Leon Trotsky himself personally responded to several of her articles, attacking both her ideas and her as a person. However, according to Pétrement, he was influenced by some of Weil's thought.

Weil participated in the French general strike of 1933, called to protest against unemployment and wage cuts. The following year, she took a 12-month leave of absence from her teaching position to work incognito as a labourer in two factories, one owned by Renault, believing that this experience would allow her to connect with the working class. In 1935, she resumed teaching and donated most of her income to political causes and charitable endeavours.

In 1936, despite her professed pacifism, she travelled to the Spanish Civil War to join the Republican faction. She identified as an anarchist, and sought out the anti-fascist commander Julián Gorkin, asking to be sent on a mission as a covert agent to rescue the prisoner Joaquín Maurín. Gorkin refused, saying Weil would be sacrificing herself for nothing since it was highly unlikely that she could pass as a Spaniard. Weil replied that she had "every right" to sacrifice herself if she chose, but after arguing for more than an hour, she was unable to convince Gorkin to give her the assignment. Instead she joined the anarchist Durruti Column of the French-speaking Sébastien Faure Century, which specialised in high-risk "commando"-style engagements. As she was extremely short-sighted, Weil was a very poor shot, and her comrades tried to avoid taking her on missions, though she did sometimes insist. Her only direct participation in combat was to shoot with her rifle at a bomber during an air raid; in a second raid, she tried to operate the group's heavy machine gun, but her comrades prevented her, as they thought it would be best for someone less clumsy and near-sighted to use the weapon. After being with the group for a few weeks, she burnt herself over a cooking fire. She was forced to leave the unit, and was met by her parents who had followed her to Spain. They helped her leave the country, to recuperate in Assisi. About a month after her departure, Weil's unit was nearly wiped out at an engagement in Perdiguera in October 1936, with every woman in the group being killed.

Weil was distressed by the Republican killings in eastern Spain, particularly when a fifteen-year-old Falangist was executed after he had been taken prisoner and Durruti had spent an hour trying to persuade him to change his political position before giving him until the next day to decide.

During her stay in the Aragon front, Weil sent some chronicles to the French publication Le Libertaire, and on returning to Paris, she continued to write essays on labour, on management, war, and peace.

Encounter with mysticism

Weil was born into a secular household and raised in "complete agnosticism". As a teenager, she considered the existence of God for herself and decided nothing could be known either way. In her Spiritual Autobiography, however, Weil records that she always had a Christian outlook, taking to heart from her earliest childhood the idea of loving one's neighbour. Weil was attracted to the Christian faith beginning in 1935, when she had the first of three pivotal religious experiences: being moved by the beauty of villagers singing hymns in a procession she stumbled across while on holiday to Portugal (in Póvoa de Varzim). Then, while in Assisi during the spring of 1937, Weil experienced a religious ecstasy in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli—the same church in which Saint Francis of Assisi had prayed. She was led to pray for the first time in her life as Lawrence S. Cunningham relates: "Below the town is the beautiful church and convent of San Damiano where Saint Clare once lived. Near that spot is the place purported to be where Saint Francis composed the larger part of his 'Canticle of Brother Sun'. Below the town in the valley is the ugliest church in the entire environs: the massive baroque basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, finished in the seventeenth century and rebuilt in the nineteenth century, which houses a rare treasure: a tiny Romanesque chapel that stood in the days of Saint Francis—the 'Little Portion' where he would gather his brethren. It was in that tiny chapel that the great mystic Simone Weil first felt compelled to kneel down and pray."

Weil had a third, more powerful, revelation a year later while reciting George Herbert's poem Love III, after which "Christ himself came down and took possession of me", and, from 1938 on, her writings became more mystical and spiritual, while retaining their focus on social and political issues. She was attracted to Catholicism, but declined to be baptized at that time, preferring to remain outside due to "the love of those things that are outside Christianity". During World War II, she lived for a time in Marseille, receiving spiritual direction from Joseph-Marie Perrin, a Dominican Friar. Weil met the French Catholic author Gustave Thibon, who later edited some of her work, helping to draw attention to her spirtitual related thought in the english speaking world.

Weil did not limit her curiosity to Christianity. She was interested in other religious traditions—especially the Greek and Egyptian mysteries; Hinduism (especially the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita); and Mahayana Buddhism. She believed that all these and other traditions contained elements of genuine revelation, writing: "Greece, Egypt, ancient India, the beauty of the world, the pure and authentic reflection of this beauty in art and science...these things have done as much as the visibly Christian ones to deliver me into Christ's hands as his captive. I think I might even say more."

Nevertheless, Weil was opposed to religious syncretism, claiming that it effaced the particularity of the individual traditions: "Each religion is alone true, that is to say, that at the moment we are thinking of it we must bring as much attention to bear on it as if there were nothing else ... A 'synthesis' of religion implies a lower quality of attention."

Later years
In 1942, Weil travelled to the United States with her family. She had been reluctant to leave France, but agreed to do so as she wanted to see her parents to safety and knew they would not leave without her. She was also encouraged by the fact that it would be relatively easy for her to reach Britain from the United States, where she could join the French Resistance. She had hopes of being sent back to France as a covert agent.

Older biographies suggest Weil made no further progress in achieving her desire to return to France as an agent—she was limited to desk work in London, although this did give her time to write one of her largest and best known works: The Need for Roots. Yet there is now evidence that Weil was recruited by the Special Operations Executive, with a view to sending her back to France as a clandestine wireless operator. In May 1943, preparations were underway to send her to Thame Park in Oxfordshire for training, but the plan was cancelled soon after, as her failing health became known.

The rigorous work routine she assumed soon took a heavy toll. In 1943, Weil was diagnosed with tuberculosis and instructed to rest and eat well. However, she refused special treatment because of her long-standing political idealism and her detachment from material things. Instead, she limited her food intake to what she believed residents of German-occupied France ate. She most likely ate even less, as she refused food on most occasions. It is probable that she was baptized during this period. Her condition quickly deteriorated, and she was moved to a sanatorium at Grosvenor Hall in Ashford, Kent.

Death
After a lifetime of battling illness and frailty, Weil died in August 1943 from cardiac failure at the age of 34. The coroner's report said that "the deceased did kill and slay herself by refusing to eat whilst the balance of her mind was disturbed".

The exact cause of her death remains a subject of debate. Some claim that her refusal to eat came from her desire to express some form of solidarity toward the victims of the war. Others think that Weil's self-starvation occurred after her study of Arthur Schopenhauer. In his chapters on Christian saintly asceticism and salvation, Schopenhauer had described self-starvation as a preferred method of self-denial. However, Simone Pétrement, one of Weil's first and most significant biographers, regards the coroner's report as simply mistaken. Basing her opinion on letters written by the personnel of the sanatorium at which Simone Weil was treated, Pétrement affirms that Weil asked for food on different occasions while she was hospitalized and even ate a little bit a few days before her death; according to her, it was, in fact, Weil's poor health condition that eventually made her unable to eat.

Weil's first English biographer, Richard Rees, offers several possible explanations for her death, citing her compassion for the suffering of her countrymen in occupied France and her love for and close imitation of Christ. Rees sums up by saying: "As for her death, whatever explanation one may give of it will amount in the end to saying that she died of love."

Absence
Absence is the key image for her metaphysics, cosmology, cosmogony, and theodicy. She believed that God created by an act of self-delimitation—in other words, she argued that because God is conceived as utter fullness, a perfect being, no creature can exist except where God is not. Thus, creation occurred only when God withdrew in part. This idea mirrors tzimtzum, a central notion in the Jewish Kabbalah creation narrative.

This is, for Weil, an original kenosis ("emptiness") preceding the corrective kenosis of Christ's incarnation. Thus, according to her, humans are born in a damned position, not because of original sin, but because to be created at all they must be what God is not; in other words, they must be inherently "unholy" in some sense. This idea fits more broadly into apophatic theology.

This notion of creation is a cornerstone of her theodicy, for if creation is conceived this way—as necessarily entailing evil—then there is no problem of the entrance of evil into a perfect world. Nor does the presence of evil constitute a limitation of God's omnipotence under Weil's notion; according to her, evil is present not because God could not create a perfect world, but because the act of "creation" in its very essence implies the impossibility of perfection.

However, this explanation of the essentiality of evil does not imply that humans are simply, originally, and continually doomed; on the contrary, Weil claims that "evil is the form which God's mercy takes in this world". Weil believed that evil, and its consequent affliction, serve the role of driving humans towards God, writing, "The extreme affliction which overtakes human beings does not create human misery, it merely reveals it."

Affliction
Weil's concept of "affliction" (malheur) goes beyond simple suffering, though it certainly includes it. According to her, only some souls are capable of experiencing the full depth of affliction—the same souls that are also most able to experience spiritual joy. Weil's notion of affliction is a sort of "suffering plus" which transcends both body and mind, a physical and mental anguish that scourges the very soul.

"The better we are able to conceive of the fullness of joy, the purer and more intense will be our suffering in affliction and our compassion for others. ...

Suffering and enjoyment as sources of knowledge. The serpent offered knowledge to Adam and Eve. The sirens offered knowledge to Ulysses. These stories teach that the soul is lost through seeking knowledge in pleasure. Why? Pleasure is perhaps innocent on condition that we do not seek knowledge in it. It is permissible to seek that only in suffering."

Metaxu: "Every separation is a link"
Metaxu, a concept Weil borrowed from Plato, is that which both separates and connects (e.g., as the word 'cleave' means both to cut and join). This idea of connecting distance was of the first importance for Weil's understanding of the created realm. The world as a whole, along with any of its components, including the physical body, is to be regarded as serving the same function for people in relation to God that a blind man's stick serves for him in relation to the world about him. They do not afford direct insight, but can be used experimentally to bring the mind into practical contact with reality. This metaphor allows any absence to be interpreted as a presence, and is a further component in Weil's theodicy.

Beauty
For Weil, "The beautiful is the experiential proof that the incarnation is possible". The beauty that is inherent in the form of the world (this inherency is proven, for her, in geometry, and expressed in all good art) is the proof that the world points to something beyond itself; it establishes the essentially telic character of all that exists. In Weil's concept, beauty extends throughout the universe: "'[W]e must have faith that the universe is beautiful on all levels...and that it has a fullness of beauty in relation to the bodily and psychic structure of each of the thinking beings that actually do exist and of all those that are possible. It is this very agreement of an infinity of perfect beauties that gives a transcendent character to the beauty of the world...He (Christ) is really present in the universal beauty. The love of this beauty proceeds from God dwelling in our souls and goes out to God present in the universe'." She also wrote that "The beauty of this world is Christ's tender smile coming to us through matter".

Beauty also served a soteriological function for Weil: "Beauty captivates the flesh in order to obtain permission to pass right to the soul." It constitutes, then, another way in which the divine reality behind the world invades people's lives: where affliction conquers with brute force, beauty sneaks in and topples the empire of the self from within.

Attention
As Weil explains in her book Waiting for God, attention consists of suspending or emptying one's thought, such that one is ready to receive—to be penetrated by—the object to which one turns one's gaze, be that object one's neighbour, or ultimately, God. As Weil explains, one can love God by praying to God, and attention is the very "substance of prayer": when one prays, one empties oneself, fixes one's whole gaze towards God, and becomes ready to receive God. Similarly, for Weil, people can love their neighbours by emptying themselves, becoming ready to receive one's neighbour in all their naked truth, asking one's neighbour: "What are you going through?"

Three Forms of the Implicit Love of God
In Waiting for God, Weil explains that the three forms of implicit love of God are (1) love of neighbour (2) love of the beauty of the world and (3) love of religious ceremonies. As Weil writes, by loving these three objects (neighbour, world's beauty and religious ceremonies), one indirectly loves God before "God comes in person to take the hand of his future bride," since prior to God's arrival, one's soul cannot yet directly love God as the object. Love of neighbour occurs (i) when the strong treat the weak as equals, (ii) when people give personal attention to those that otherwise seem invisible, anonymous, or non-existent, and (iii) when people look at and listen to the afflicted as they are, without explicitly thinking about God—i.e., Weil writes, when "God in us" loves the afflicted, rather than people loving them in God. Second, Weil explains, love of the world's beauty occurs when humans imitate God's love for the cosmos: just as God creatively renounced his command over the world—letting it be ruled by human autonomy and matter's "blind necessity"—humans give up their imaginary command over the world, seeing the world no longer as if they were the world's center. Finally, Weil explains, love of religious ceremonies occurs as an implicit love of God, when religious practices are pure. Weil writes that purity in religion is seen when "faith and love do not fail," and most absolutely, in the Eucharist.

Works
According to Lissa McCullough, Weil would likely have been "intensely displeased" by the attention paid to her life rather than her works. She believed it was her writings that embodied the best of her, not her actions and definitely not her personality. Weil had similar views about others, saying that if one looks at the lives of great figures in separation from their works, it "necessarily ends up revealing their pettiness above all", as it's in their works that they have put the best of themselves.

Weil's most famous works were published posthumously.
 * "In the decades since her death, her writings have been assembled, annotated, criticized, discussed, disputed, and praised. Along with some twenty volumes of her works, publishers have issued more than thirty biographies, including Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage by Robert Coles, Harvard's Pulitzer-winning professor, who calls Weil 'a giant of reflection.'"

The Iliad, or The Poem of Force
Weil wrote The Iliad, or The Poem of Force (L'Iliade ou le poème de la force), a 24-page essay, in 1939. First published in 1940 in Les Cahiers du Sud, the only significant literary magazine available in the French free zone. It is still commonly used in university courses on the Classics.

The essay focuses on the theme that Weil calls 'Force' in the Iliad, which she defines as "that x which turns anyone subjected to it into a thing." In the opening sentences of the essay, she sets out her view of the role of Force in the poem:

The true hero, the true subject, the centre of the Iliad, is force. Force employed by man, force that enslaves man, force before which man's flesh shrinks away. In this work, at all times, the human spirit is shown as modified by its relations with force, as swept away, blinded, by the very force it imagined it could handle, as deformed by the weight of the force it submits to.

The New York Review of Books has described the essay as one of Weil's most celebrated works, while it has also been described as among "the twentieth century's most beloved, tortured, and profound responses to the world's greatest and most disturbing poem."

Simone Petrement, a friend of Weil's, wrote that the essay portrayed the Iliad as an accurate and compassionate depiction of how both victors and victims are harmed by the use of force.

The essay contains several extracts from the epic which Weil translated herself from the original Greek; Petrement records how Weil took over half an hour per line.

The Need for Roots
Weil's book The Need for Roots was written in early 1943, immediately before her death later that year. She was in London working for the French Resistance and trying to convince its leader, Charles de Gaulle, to form a contingent of nurses who would serve at the front lines.

The Need for Roots has an ambitious plan. It sets out to address the past and to propose a road map for the future of France after World War II. She painstakingly analyzes the spiritual and ethical milieu that led to France's defeat by the German army, and then addresses these issues with the prospect of eventual French victory.

Gravity and Grace
While Gravity and Grace (La Pesanteur et la Grâce) is one of the books most associated with Simone Weil, the work was not intended to be a book at all. Rather, the work consists of various passages selected from Weil's notebooks and arranged topically by her friend Gustave Thibon. Weil had given Thibon some of her notebooks written before May 1942, but not with any intent to publish them. Hence, the resulting selections, organization and editing of Gravity and Grace were much influenced by Thibon, a devout Catholic (see Thibon's introduction to Gravity and Grace (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1952) for more details).

Legacy
During her lifetime, Weil was known only in relatively narrow circles and even in France her essays were mostly read only by those interested in radical politics. During the first decade after her death, Weil rapidly became famous, attracting attention throughout the West. For the third quarter of the 20th century, she was widely regarded as the most influential person in the world on new work concerning religious and spiritual matters. Her philosophical, social and political thought also became popular, although not to the same degree as her religious work.

Aside from influencing various fields of study, Weil deeply affected the personal lives of numerous individuals. Pope Paul VI said that Weil was one of his three greatest influences. Weil's popularity began to decline in the late 1960s and 1970s. However, more of her work was gradually published, leading to many thousands of new secondary works by Weil scholars, some of whom focused on achieving a deeper understanding of her religious, philosophical and political work. Others broadened the scope of Weil scholarship to investigate her applicability to fields like classical studies, cultural studies, education, and even technical fields like ergonomics.

Many commentators have given highly positive assessments of Weil as a person; some describe her as a saint, even as the greatest saint of the twentieth century, including T. S. Eliot, Dwight Macdonald, Leslie Fiedler, and Robert Coles. After they met at age 18, Simone de Beauvoir wroteː "I envied her for having a heart that could beat right across the world." Weil biographer Gabriella Fiori writes that Weil was "a moral genius in the orbit of ethics, a genius of immense revolutionary range." Maurice Schumann said that since her death there was "hardly a day when the thought of her life did not positively influence his own and serve as a moral guide." In 1951, Albert Camus wrote that she was "the only great spirit of our times." Foolish though she may have appeared at times—dropping a suitcase full of French resistance papers all over the sidewalk and scrambling to gather them up—her deep engagement with both the theory and practice of caritas, in all its myriad forms, functions as the unifying force of her life and thought. Gustave Thibon, the French philosopher and Weil's close friend, recounts their last meeting, not long before her death: "I will only say that I had the impression of being in the presence of an absolutely transparent soul which was ready to be reabsorbed into original light." Weil has been criticised, however, even by those who otherwise admired her deeply, such as T. S. Eliot, for being excessively prone to divide the world into good and evil, and for her sometimes intemperate judgments. Weil was a harsh critic of the influence of Judaism on Western civilisation. However, her niece Sylvie Weil and biographer Thomas R. Nevin argue that Weil did not reject Judaism and was heavily influenced by its precepts. Weil was an even harsher critic of the Roman Empire, in which she refused to see any value. On the other hand, according to Eliot, she held up the Cathars as exemplars of goodness, despite there being in his view little concrete evidence on which to base such an assessment. According to Pétrement she idolised Lawrence of Arabia, considering him to be a saint. A few critics have taken an overall negative view. Several Jewish writers, including Susan Sontag, have accused her of antisemitism, although this perspective is far from universal. A small minority of commentators have judged her to be psychologically unbalanced or sexually obsessed. General Charles de Gaulle, her ultimate boss while she worked for the French Resistance, considered her "insane", although even he was influenced by her and repeated some of her sayings for years after her death.

A meta study from the University of Calgary found that between 1995 and 2012 over 2,500 new scholarly works had been published about her.

Portrayal in film and onstage
"Approaching Simone" is a play created by Megan Terry. Dramatizing the life, philosophy and death of Simone Weil, Terry's play won the 1969/1970 Obie Award for Best Off-Broadway Play.

Weil was the subject of a 2010 documentary by Julia Haslett, An encounter with Simone Weil. Haslett noted that Weil had become "a little-known figure, practically forgotten in her native France, and rarely taught in universities or secondary schools".

Weil was also the subject of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's La Passion de Simone (2008), written with librettist Amin Maalouf. Of the piece, music critic Olivia Giovetti wrote:

"Framing her soprano soloist as Simone's imaginary sister (Literal? Metaphorical? Does it matter?), the narrative arc becomes a struggle to understand the dichotomy of Simone. Wrapped in this dramatic mystery, Saariaho's musical textures, haunting and moribund, create a meditative state. To go back to Bach's St. Matthew Passion, if that work, written for his time, serves to reinforce the (then-revolutionary) system of the Protestant church, then 'La Passion de Simone,' written for our time, questions the mystery of faith to reinforce the inexplicable experience of being human."

Works in French

 * Simone Weil, Œuvres complètes. (Paris : Gallimard, 1989–2006, 6 vols.)
 * Réflexions sur la guerre (La Critique sociale, no. 10, November 1933)
 * Chronicles from the Spanish Civil War, in: 'Le Libertaire', a French anarchist magazine, 1936
 * La Pesanteur et la grâce (Paris : Plon, 1947)
 * L'enracinement : Prélude à une déclaration des devoirs envers l'être humain (Gallimard [Espoir], 1949)
 * Attente de Dieu (1950)
 * La connaissance surnaturelle (Gallimard [Espoir], 1950)
 * La Condition ouvrière (Gallimard [Espoir], 1951)
 * Lettre à un religieux (Gallimard [Espoir], 1951)
 * Les Intuitions pré-chrétiennes (Paris: Les Éditions de la Colombe, 1951)
 * La Source grecque (Gallimard [Espoir], 1953)
 * Oppression et Liberté (Gallimard [Espoir], 1955)
 * Venise sauvée : Tragédie en trois actes (Gallimard, 1955)
 * Écrits de Londres et dernières lettres (Gallimard [Espoir], 1957)
 * Écrits historiques et politiques (Gallimard [Espoir], 1960)
 * Pensées sans ordre concernant l'amour de Dieu (Gallimard [Espoir], 1962)
 * Sur la science (Gallimard [Espoir], 1966)
 * Poèmes, suivi de Venise sauvée (Gallimard [Espoir], 1968)
 * Note sur la suppression générale des partis politiques (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1957 - Climats, 2006)

Works in English translation

 * A Life in Letters. Robert Chenavier & André A. Devaux, eds. Translated by Nicholas Elliott. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2024. ISBN 9780674292376
 * Awaiting God: A New Translation of Attente de Dieu and Lettre a un Religieux. Introduction by Sylvie Weil. Translated by Bradley Jersak. Fresh Wind Press, 2012. ISBN 978-1-927512-03-6.
 * First and Last Notebooks: Supernatural Knowledge. Translated by Richard Rees. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015.
 * Formative Writings: 1929–1941. (1987). Dorothy Tuck McFarland & Wilhelmina Van Ness, eds. University of Massachusetts Press.
 * The Iliad or the Poem of Force. Translated by Mary McCarthy. Pendle Hill Pamphlet.
 * Intimations of Christianity among the Ancient Greeks. Translated by Elisabeth Chase Geissbuhler. New York: Routledge, 1998.
 * Lectures on Philosophy. Translated by Hugh Price. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
 * Letter to a Priest. Translated by Arthur Willis. New York: Routledge, 2002.
 * The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties Towards Mankind. Translated by Arthur Willis. New York: Routledge, 2002.
 * The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Obligations Towards the Human Being. Introduction by Dr. Kate Kirkpatrick. Translated by Ros Schwarz. Penguin Classics, 2024. ISBN 9780241467978
 * Gravity and Grace. Edited by Gustave Thibon. Translated by Arthur Willis. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
 * The Notebooks of Simone Weil. Routledge paperback, 1984. ISBN 0-7100-8522-2 [Routledge 2004. ISBN 978-0-415-32771-8]
 * On Science, Necessity, & The Love of God. Translated by Richard Rees. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.
 * On the Abolition of All Political Parties. Translated by Simon Leys. New York: The New York Review of Books, 2013.
 * Oppression and Liberty. Edited by Albert Camus. Translated by Arthur Willis and John Petrie. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1973.
 * Selected Essays, 1934–1943: Historical, Political and Moral Writings. Edited and translated by Richard Rees. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015.
 * Seventy Letters: Personal and Intellectual Windows on a Thinker. Translated by Richard Rees. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015.
 * Simone Weil's The Iliad or Poem of Force: A Critical Edition. Edited and translated by James P. Holoka. Peter Lang, 2005.
 * Simone Weil: An Anthology. Sian Miles, editor. Virago Press, 1986.
 * The Simone Weil Reader: A Legendary Spiritual Odyssey of Our Time. Edited by George A. Panichas. David McKay Co., 1981.
 * Two Moral Essays by Simone Weil—Draft for a Statement of Human Obligations & Human Personality. Edited by Ronald Hathaway. Translated by Richard Rees. Pendle Hill Pamphlet.
 * Venice Saved. Translated by Silvia Panizza and Philip Wilson. New York: Bloomsbury, 2019.
 * Waiting for God. Translated by Emma Craufurd. New York: HarperPerennial, 2009.

Online journal

 * Attention a bi-monthly online journal (free) dedicated to exploring the life and legacy of Simone Weil.

Biographies

 * Anderson, David. (1971). Simone Weil. SCM Press.
 * Cabaud, Jacques. (1964). Simone Weil. Channel Press.
 * Coles, Robert (1989) Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage. Addison-Wesley. 2001 ed., Skylight Paths Publishing.
 * Fiori, Gabriella (1989) Simone Weil: An Intellectual Biography. translated by Joseph R. Berrigan. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0-8203-1102-2
 * ———, (1991) Simone Weil. Una donna assoluta, La Tartaruga; Saggistica. ISBN 88-7738-075-6
 * ———, (1993) Simone Weil. Une Femme Absolue Diffuseur-SODIS. ISBN 2-86645-148-1
 * Gray, Francine Du Plessix (2001) Simone Weil. Viking Press.
 * McLellan, David (1990) Utopian Pessimist: The Life and Thought of Simone Weil. New York: Poseidon Press.
 * Nevin, Thomas R. (1991). Simone Weil: Portrait of a Self-Exiled Jew. Chapel Hill.
 * Perrin, J.B. & Thibon, G. (1953). Simone Weil as We Knew Her. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
 * Pétrement, Simone (1976) Simone Weil: A Life. New York: Schocken Books. 1988 edition.
 * Plessix Gray, Francine du. (2001). Simone Weil. Penguin.
 * Rexroth, Kenneth (1957) Simone Weil http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/essays/simone-weil.htm
 * Guia Risari (2014) Il taccuino di Simone Weil, RueBallu 2014, Palermo, ISBN 978-88-95689-15-9
 * Sogos Wiquel, Giorgia (2022) "Simone Weil. Private Überlegungen". Bonn, Free Pen Verlag. ISBN 978-3-945177-95-2.
 * Terry, Megan (1973). Approaching Simone: A Play. The Feminist Press.
 * White, George A., ed. (1981). Simone Weil: Interpretations of a Life. University of Massachusetts Press.
 * Yourgrau, Palle. (2011) Simone Weil. Critical Lives series. London: Reaktion.
 * Weil, Sylvie. (2010) At home with André and Simone Weil. Evanston: Northwestern.
 * "Simone Weil: A Saint for Our Time?" magazine article by Jillian Becker; The New Criterion, Vol. 20, March 2002.

Audio recordings

 * David Cayley, Enlightened by Love: The Thought of Simone Weil. CBC Audio (2002)
 * "In Our Time" documentary on Weil, BBC Radio 4 (2015)

title: Simone Weil


text:
Anticonvulsant

Anticonvulsants (also known as antiepileptic drugs, antiseizure drugs, or anti-seizure medications (ASM)) are a diverse group of pharmacological agents used in the treatment of epileptic seizures. Anticonvulsants are also increasingly being used in the treatment of bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, since many seem to act as mood stabilizers, and for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Anticonvulsants suppress the excessive rapid firing of neurons during seizures. Anticonvulsants also prevent the spread of the seizure within the brain.

Conventional antiepileptic drugs may block sodium channels or enhance γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) function. Several antiepileptic drugs have multiple or uncertain mechanisms of action. Next to the voltage-gated sodium channels and components of the GABA system, their targets include GABAA receptors, the GABA transporter type 1, and GABA transaminase. Additional targets include voltage-gated calcium channels, SV2A, and α2δ. By blocking sodium or calcium channels, antiepileptic drugs reduce the release of excitatory glutamate, whose release is considered to be elevated in epilepsy, but also that of GABA. This is probably a side effect or even the actual mechanism of action for some antiepileptic drugs, since GABA can itself, directly or indirectly, act proconvulsively. Another potential target of antiepileptic drugs is the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha.

Some anticonvulsants have shown antiepileptogenic effects in animal models of epilepsy. That is, they either prevent the development of epilepsy or can halt or reverse the progression of epilepsy. However, no drug has been shown in human trials to prevent epileptogenesis (the development of epilepsy in an individual at risk, such as after a head injury).

Terminology
Anticonvulsants are more accurately called antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) because not every epileptic seizure involves convulsion, and vice versa, not every convulsion is caused by an epileptic seizure. They are also often referred to as antiseizure drugs because they provide symptomatic treatment only and have not been demonstrated to alter the course of epilepsy.

Approval
The usual method of achieving approval for a drug is to show it is effective when compared against placebo, or that it is more effective than an existing drug. In monotherapy (where only one drug is taken) it is considered unethical by most to conduct a trial with placebo on a new drug of uncertain efficacy. This is because untreated epilepsy leaves the patient at significant risk of death. Therefore, almost all new epilepsy drugs are initially approved only as adjunctive (add-on) therapies. Patients whose epilepsy is uncontrolled by their medication (i.e., it is refractory to treatment) are selected to see if supplementing the medication with the new drug leads to an improvement in seizure control. Any reduction in the frequency of seizures is compared against a placebo. The lack of superiority over existing treatment, combined with lacking placebo-controlled trials, means that few modern drugs have earned FDA approval as initial monotherapy. In contrast, Europe only requires equivalence to existing treatments and has approved many more. Despite their lack of FDA approval, the American Academy of Neurology and the American Epilepsy Society still recommend a number of these new drugs as initial monotherapy.

Drugs
In the following list, the dates in parentheses are the earliest approved use of the drug.

Aldehydes

 * Paraldehyde (1882). One of the earliest anticonvulsants. It is still used to treat status epilepticus, particularly where there are no resuscitation facilities.

Aromatic allylic alcohols

 * Stiripentol (2007). Indicated for the treatment of Dravet syndrome.

Barbiturates
Barbiturates are drugs that act as central nervous system (CNS) depressants, and by virtue of this they produce a wide spectrum of effects, from mild sedation to anesthesia. The following are classified as anticonvulsants:
 * Phenobarbital (1912). See also the related drug primidone.
 * Methylphenobarbital (1935). Known as mephobarbital in the US. No longer marketed in the UK.
 * Barbexaclone (1982). Only available in some European countries.

Phenobarbital was the main anticonvulsant from 1912 until the development of phenytoin in 1938. Today, phenobarbital is rarely used to treat epilepsy in new patients since there are other effective drugs that are less sedating. Phenobarbital sodium injection can be used to stop acute convulsions or status epilepticus, but a benzodiazepine such as lorazepam, diazepam or midazolam is usually tried first. Other barbiturates only have an anticonvulsant effect at anaesthetic doses.

Benzodiazepines
The benzodiazepines are a class of drugs with hypnotic, anxiolytic, anticonvulsive, amnestic and muscle relaxant properties. Benzodiazepines act as a central nervous system depressant. The relative strength of each of these properties in any given benzodiazepine varies greatly and influences the indications for which it is prescribed. Long-term use can be problematic due to the development of tolerance to the anticonvulsant effects and dependency. Of many drugs in this class, only a few are used to treat epilepsy:
 * Clobazam (1979). Notably, used on a short-term basis around menstruation in women with catamenial epilepsy.
 * Clonazepam (1974).
 * Clorazepate (1972).

The following benzodiazepines are used to treat status epilepticus:
 * Diazepam (1963). Can be given rectally by trained care-givers.
 * Midazolam (N/A). Increasingly being used as an alternative to diazepam. This water-soluble drug is squirted into the side of the mouth but not swallowed. It is rapidly absorbed by the buccal mucosa.
 * Lorazepam (1972). Given by injection in hospital.

Nitrazepam, temazepam, and especially nimetazepam are powerful anticonvulsant agents, however their use is rare due to an increased incidence of side effects and strong sedative and motor-impairing properties.

Bromides

 * Potassium bromide (1857). The earliest effective treatment for epilepsy. There would not be a better drug until phenobarbital in 1912. It is still used as an anticonvulsant for dogs and cats but is no longer used in humans.

Carbamates

 * Felbamate (1993). This effective anticonvulsant has had its usage severely restricted due to rare but life-threatening side effects.
 * Cenobamate (2019).

Carboxamides

The following are carboxamides:
 * Carbamazepine (1963). A popular anticonvulsant that is available in generic formulations.
 * Oxcarbazepine (1990). A derivative of carbamazepine that has similar efficacy and is better tolerated and is also available generically.
 * Eslicarbazepine acetate (2009).
 * Photoswitchable analogues of carbamazepine (2024) are research compounds developed to control its pharmacological activity locally and on demand using light, with the purpose to reduce adverse systemic effects. One of these compounds (carbadiazocine, based on a bridged azobenzene) has been shown to produce analgesia with noninvasive illumination in a rat model of neuropathic pain.

Fatty acids
The following are fatty-acids:
 * The valproates — valproic acid, sodium valproate, and divalproex sodium (1967).
 * Vigabatrin (1989).
 * Progabide (1987).
 * Tiagabine (1996).

Vigabatrin and progabide are also analogs of GABA.

Fructose derivatives

 * Topiramate (1995).

Gabapentinoids
Gabapentinoids are used in epilepsy, neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, opioid withdrawal and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Gabapentinoids block voltage-gated calcium channels, mainly the N-Type, and P/Q-type calcium channels. The following are gabapentinoids:
 * Pregabalin (2004)
 * Mirogabalin (2019) (Japan only)
 * Gabapentin (1993)
 * Gabapentin enacarbil (Horizant) (2011)
 * Gabapentin extended release (Gralise) (1996)

Gabapentinoids are analogs of GABA, but they do not act on GABA receptors. They have analgesic, anticonvulsant, and anxiolytic effects.

Hydantoins
The following are hydantoins:
 * Ethotoin (1957).
 * Phenytoin (1938).
 * Mephenytoin.
 * Fosphenytoin (1996).

Oxazolidinediones
The following are oxazolidinediones:
 * Paramethadione.
 * Trimethadione (1946).
 * Ethadione.

Propionates

 * Beclamide.

Pyrimidinediones

 * Primidone (1952).

Pyrrolidines

 * Brivaracetam (2016).
 * Etiracetam.
 * Levetiracetam (1999).
 * Seletracetam.

Succinimides
The following are succinimides:
 * Ethosuximide (1955).
 * Phensuximide.
 * Mesuximide.

Sulfonamides

 * Acetazolamide (1953).
 * Sultiame.
 * Methazolamide.
 * Zonisamide (2000).

Triazines

 * Lamotrigine (1990).

Ureas

 * Pheneturide.
 * Phenacemide.

Valproylamides

 * Valpromide.
 * Valnoctamide.

Other

 * Perampanel.
 * Stiripentol.
 * Pyridoxine (1939).

Non-pharmaceutical anticonvulsants
The ketogenic diet and vagus nerve stimulation are alternative treatments for epilepsy without the involvement of pharmaceuticals. The ketogenic diet consists of a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, and has shown good results in patients whose epilepsy has not responded to medications and who cannot receive surgery. The vagus nerve stimulator is a device that can be implanted into patients with epilepsy, especially that which originates from a specific part of the brain. However, both of these treatment options can cause severe adverse effects. Additionally, while seizure frequency typically decreases, they often do not stop entirely.

Treatment guidelines
According to guidelines by the American Academy of Neurology and American Epilepsy Society, mainly based on a major article review in 2004, patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy who require treatment can be initiated on standard anticonvulsants such as carbamazepine, phenytoin, valproic acid/valproate semisodium, phenobarbital, or on the newer anticonvulsants gabapentin, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine or topiramate. The choice of anticonvulsants depends on individual patient characteristics. Both newer and older drugs are generally equally effective in new onset epilepsy. The newer drugs tend to have fewer side effects. For newly diagnosed partial or mixed seizures, there is evidence for using gabapentin, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine or topiramate as monotherapy. Lamotrigine can be included in the options for children with newly diagnosed absence seizures.

History
The first anticonvulsant was bromide, suggested in 1857 by the British gynecologist Charles Locock who used it to treat women with "hysterical epilepsy" (probably catamenial epilepsy). Bromides are effective against epilepsy, and also cause impotence, which is not related to its anti-epileptic effects. Bromide also suffered from the way it affected behaviour, introducing the idea of the "epileptic personality" which was actually a result of medication. Phenobarbital was first used in 1912 for both its sedative and antiepileptic properties. By the 1930s, the development of animal models in epilepsy research led to the development of phenytoin by Tracy Putnam and H. Houston Merritt, which had the distinct advantage of treating epileptic seizures with less sedation. By the 1970s, a National Institutes of Health initiative, the Anticonvulsant Screening Program, headed by J. Kiffin Penry, served as a mechanism for drawing the interest and abilities of pharmaceutical companies in the development of new anticonvulsant medications.

Marketing approval history
The following table lists anticonvulsant drugs together with the date their marketing was approved in the US, UK and France. Data for the UK and France are incomplete. The European Medicines Agency approves drugs throughout the European Union. Some of the drugs are no longer marketed.

Pregnancy
Many of the commonly used anticonvulsant/anti-seizure medications (ASMs), such as valproate, phenytoin, carbamazepine, phenobarbitol, gabapentin have been reported to cause an increased risk of birth defects including major congenital malformations such as neural tube defects. The risk of birth defects associated with taking these medications while pregnant may be dependent on the dose and on the timing of gestation (how well developed the baby is). While trying to conceive a child and during pregnancy, medical advice should be followed to optimize the management of the person's epilepsy in order to keep the person and the unborn baby safe from epileptic seizures and also ensure that the risk of birth defects due to in utero exposure of anticonvulsants is as low as possible. Use of anticonvulsant medications should be carefully monitored during use in pregnancy. For example, since the first trimester is the most susceptible period for fetal development, planning a routine antiepileptic drug dose that is safer for the first trimester could be beneficial to prevent pregnancy complications.

Valproic acid, and its derivatives such as sodium valproate and divalproex sodium, causes cognitive deficit in the child, with an increased dose causing decreased intelligence quotient and use is associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes (cognitive and behavioral)  in children. On the other hand, evidence is conflicting for carbamazepine regarding any increased risk of congenital physical anomalies or neurodevelopmental disorders by intrauterine exposure. Similarly, children exposed lamotrigine or phenytoin in the womb do not seem to differ in their skills compared to those who were exposed to carbamazepine.

There is inadequate evidence to determine if newborns of women with epilepsy taking anticonvulsants have a substantially increased risk of hemorrhagic disease of the newborn.

There is little evidence to suggest that anticonvulsant/ASM exposure through breastmilk has clinical effects on newborns. The Maternal Outcomes and Neurodevelopmental Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs (MONEAD) study showed that most blood concentrations in breastfed infants of mothers taking carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, valproate, levetiracetam, and topiramate were quite low, especially in relationship to the mother's level and what the fetal level would have been during pregnancy. (Note: valproic acid is NOT a recommended ASM for people with epilepsy who are considering having children.)

Infant exposure to newer ASMs (cenobamate, perampanel, brivaracetam, eslicarbazepine, rufinamide, levetiracetam, topiramate, gabapentin, oxcarbazepine, lamotrigine, and vigabatrin) via breastmilk was not associated with negative neurodevelopment (such as lower IQ and autism spectrum disorder) at 36 months.

Several studies that followed children exposed to ASMs during pregnancy showed that a number of widely used ones (including lamotrigine and levetiracetam) carried a low risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes (cognitive and behavioral) in children when compared to children born to mothers without epilepsy and children born to mothers taking other anti-seizure medications. Data from several pregnancy registries showed that children exposed to levetiracetam or lamotrigine during pregnancy had the lowest risk of developing major congenital malformations compared to those exposed to other ASMs. The risk of major congenital malformations for children exposed to these ASMs were within the range for children who were not exposed to any ASMs during pregnancy.

People with epilepsy can have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. However, proper planning and care is essential to minimize the risk of congenital malformations or adverse neurocognitive outcomes for the fetus while maintaining seizure control for the pregnant person with epilepsy. If possible, when planning pregnancy, people with epilepsy should switch to ASMs with the lowest teratogenic risk for major congenital malformations as well as the least risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes (e.g., lower IQ or autism spectrum disorder). They should also work with their healthcare providers to identify the lowest effective ASM dosage that will maintain their seizure control while regularly checking medication levels throughout pregnancy.

Data from studies conducted on women taking antiepileptic drugs for non-epileptic reasons, including depression and bipolar disorder, show that if high doses of the drugs are taken during the first trimester of pregnancy then there is the potential of an increased risk of congenital malformations.

Research
The mechanism of how anticonvulsants cause birth defects is not entirely clear. During pregnancy, the metabolism of many anticonvulsants is affected. There may be an increase in the clearance and resultant decrease in the blood concentration of lamotrigine, phenytoin, and to a lesser extent carbamazepine, and possibly decreases the level of levetiracetam and the active oxcarbazepine metabolite, the monohydroxy derivative. In animal models, several anticonvulsant drugs have been demonstrated to induce neuronal apoptosis in the developing brain.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Anticonvulsant


text:
Talk:Global warming skepticism

Reversion to Separate Articles
Per the discussion in the merge discussion, I will work on the article and get it up to standard, since skepticism and denialism are not the same. Please feel free to jump in and help. GregJackP  Boomer!   03:52, 13 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Can you add or ues this? Peter Wood writing in Academic Questions has said scepticism over AGW has become respectable since the Climategate controversy.

Ref name="Peter Woods">

Resources

Will continue to add resources. Minor4th  14:28, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

Linked to Global warming controversy
Global warming controversy is the appropriate redirect. It is inappropriate to equate skeptics to "deniers", a pejorative political term. It's well established that the historic origin of "climate change denial" is by explicit analogy to Holocaust denial. See (forex) Climate_change_denial --Pete Tillman (talk) 01:31, 29 May 2015 (UTC)

 * Climate change denial very explicitly discusses "climate change skepticism", right within the lead. Why would that not be the appropriate target, since it is where this term is expressly discussed?  — Jess · Δ♥ 19:47, 30 May 2015 (UTC)

 * Yes, it does, but goes on to explain that they're not the same. And to call someone a climate change denier is definitely pejorative: see the para there on the history of the term, with Ellen Goodman making the explicit analogy to Holocaust denial. So that's really not an acceptable redirect. Global warming controversy is a less fraught choice, and is also a better and more neutral article (imo).

 * We used to have a Global warming skepticism page (ims), but it was merged into the controversy page some years back (assuming my recollection is accurate).

 * Hope you find this a helpful (and persuasive) argument. Best regards, Pete Tillman (talk) 22:25, 30 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Wait a minute: because a journalist draws an analogy between this and a different form of denialism, you want us to ignore published scholarly sources? Looks like concern trolling. . . dave souza, talk 14:37, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

 * Huh? I never said anything about calling anyone a climate change denier. The fact that climate change denial discusses "climate change skepticism" in detail, and goes on to explain they aren't the same, is precisely why we should be linking there instead of an unrelated page that never mentions climate change skepticism at all.  — Jess · Δ♥ 23:13, 30 May 2015 (UTC)
 * See Climate change denial, and note in particular that Spencer R. Weart and the National Center for Science Education have adopted this as the most explanatory term, with no derogatory intent. . . dave souza, talk 14:32, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

RfC on this redirect, and others
I posted an RfC on this redirect at: Talk:Climate change denial. Please feel free to provide your input. — Jess · Δ♥ 16:18, 10 October 2015 (UTC)

title: Talk:Global warming skepticism


text:
Astrological aspect

In astrology, an aspect is an angle that planets make to each other in the horoscope; as well as to the Ascendant, Midheaven, Descendant, Lower Midheaven, and other points of astrological interest. As viewed from Earth, aspects are measured by the angular distance in degrees and minutes of ecliptic longitude between two points. According to astrological tradition, they indicate the timing of transitions and developmental changes in the lives of people and affairs relative to the Earth.

For example, if an astrologer creates a Horoscope that shows the apparent positions of the celestial bodies at the time of a person's birth (Natal Chart), and the angular distance between Mars and Venus is 92° ecliptic longitude, the chart is said to have the aspect "Venus Square Mars" with an orb of 2° (i.e., it is 2° away from being an exact Square; a Square being a 90° aspect). The more exact an aspect, the stronger or more dominant it is said to be in shaping character or manifesting change.

With Natal charts, other signs may take precedence over a Sun sign. For example, an Aries may have several other planets in Cancer or Pisces. Therefore, the two latter signs may be more influential.

History and approach
In medieval astrology, certain aspects and planets were considered to be either favorable (benefic) or unfavorable (malefic). Modern usage places less emphasis on these fatalistic distinctions. The more modern approach to astrological aspects is exemplified by research on astrological harmonics. In 1619, Johannes Kepler advocates this in his book Harmonice Mundi. Thereafter, John Addey was a major proponent. However, even in modern times, aspects are considered to be either easy (60° Sextile or 120° Trine) or hard (90° Square or 180° Opposition). Depending on the involved planets, a Conjunction (0°, which is a discounting orb) may be in either category.

Easy aspects may be positive, because they enhance opportunity for talent to grow. Hard aspects may be negative, because they enhance a challenge where an adjustment must be made to reach balance. Typically, manifestation may occur with a Conjunction, Square or Opposition.

Planets may be considered. Mars and Uranus tend to ignite while Saturn and Neptune inhibit. Whether a planet is direct or retrograde is of great significance. An eclipse of the Sun or Moon is even more significant. The South Node of the Moon denotes innate wisdom from past experience while the North Node denotes karma and evolution.

Astrological Signs may be considered. For example, the fire signs of Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are more compatible with the air signs of Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. The Earth signs of Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn are more compatible with the water signs of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. The mutable signs of Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces may be flexible. The cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn may change their mind. The fixed signs of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius may be difficult.

Astrological Houses may be considered.

Ptolemaic Aspects
Since they were defined and used by Ptolemy in the 1st Century AD, the traditional major aspects are sometimes called Ptolemaic Aspects. These aspects are the Conjunction (0°), Sextile (60°), Square (90°), Trine (120°), and Opposition (180°). Major aspects are those that are divisible by 10 and evenly divided in relation to 360° (with the exception of the Semisextile).

When calculating or using aspects, it is important to note that different astrologers and separate astrological systems/traditions utilize differing orbs, which is the degree of separation between exactitude. Orbs may also be subject to variation, depending on the need for detail and personal preferences. Although, when compared to other aspects, almost all astrologers use a larger orb for a Conjunction.

Kepler's Aspects
Collective astrological data along with Johannes Kepler described 13 aspects in his book Harmonice Mundi. Astrological data grouped together in five degrees of influentially picked from symbol ratios encountered in geometry and music: 0/2, 1/2, 1/5, 2/6, 1/3, 1/12 along with 1/5, 2/5, 15/5, 10, 10/3, 8, and 8/3. The general names for whole divisors are (Latin) n-ile for whole fractions 1/n, and m-n-ile for fraction m/n. A Semi-n-tile is a 2n-tile, 1/(2n), and Sesqui-n-tile is a Tri-2n-tile, 3/(2n).

All aspects can be seen as small whole number harmonics, (1/n of 360°). Multiples of m/n create new aspects where there are no common factors between n and m, gcd(n,m)=1.

Conjunction
A Conjunction (abbreviated as "Con") is an angle of approximately (~) 0–10°. Typically, an orb of ~10° is considered to be a Conjunction. If neither the Sun or Moon are involved, some astrologers consider a maximum orb of 8°.

Conjunctions are a major aspect in a horoscope chart. They are said to be the most powerful aspects, because they mutually intensify the effects of the involved planets.

Depending on the involved planets, a Conjunction may be beneficial or detrimental. Highly favourable Conjunctions may involve the Sun, Venus, and/or Jupiter as well as any of the three possible combinations. Highly unfavourable Conjunctions may involve the Moon, Mars, and/or Saturn as well as any of the three possible combinations.

Exceptionally, on November 9–10 of 1970, the Sun, Venus, and Jupiter were in a three-way beneficial Conjunction. In that same year, on March 10, the Moon, Mars, and Saturn were in 3-way detrimental Conjunction.

If either of two planets involved in a Conjunction is also under tension from one or more hard aspects with one or more other planets, then the added presence of a Conjunction will further intensify the tension of that hard aspect.

If a planet is in very close Conjunction to the Sun (within 17 minutes of arc or only about 0.28°), the Conjunction is of great strength. The planet is said to be Cazimi, which is an ancient astrological term meaning "in the heart" (of the Sun). For example, "Venus Cazimi" means Venus is in Conjunction with the Sun with an orb of less than ~0.28°.

If a planet is moderately close to the Sun, the specific orb limit may depend on the particular planet. It is said to be Combust.  Every month of the year, during the New Moon, the Sun and Moon experience a Conjunction.

Great Conjunctions
In the past, Great Conjunctions between the two slowest classical planets, Jupiter and Saturn, have attracted considerable attention as celestial omens. This interest can be traced back to Arabic translations found in Europe; most notably Albumasar's book on Conjunctions. During the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, these omens were a topic broached by most astronomers. This included scholastic thinkers, such as Roger Bacon and Pierre D'Ailly. Omens are also mentioned in popular literary writings by authors, such as Dante and Shakespeare. This interest continued up to the times of Tycho Brahe and Kepler.

Every 20 years, successive Great Conjunctions move retrograde ~120°. Sequential Conjunctions appear as triangular patterns. They repeat after every third Conjunction; they return after some 60 years to the vicinity of the first. These returns are observed to be shifted by ~8° relative to the fixed stars; no more than four of them occur in the same zodiac sign. Typically, Conjunctions occur in one of the following Triplicities or Trigons of Zodiac signs:

After about 220 years the pattern shifts to the next Trigon; in ~900 years, the pattern returns to the first Trigon.

To each triangular pattern, astrologers have ascribed one from a series of four elements. Particular importance has been accorded to the occurrence of a Great Conjunction in a new Trigon, which is bound to happen after ~240 years at most. Greater importance is attributed to the beginning of a new cycle, which may occur after all four Trigons have been visited, which occurs in ~900 years.

Typically, medieval astrologers used 960 years as the length of the full cycle, because, in some cases, it took 240 years to pass from one trigon to the next. If a cycle is defined by when the Conjunctions return to the same right ascension rather than to the same constellation, the cycle is only ~800 years, because of axial precession. Use of the Alphonsine tables apparently led to the use of precessing signs; Kepler gave a value of 794 years, which created 40 Conjunctions.

Up to the end of the 16th century, despite the inaccuracies and some disagreement about the beginning of the cycle, the belief in the significance of such events generated a steady stream of publications. In 1583, the last Great Conjunction occurred in the watery trigon. It was widely supposed to herald apocalyptic changes. In 1586, a Papal Bull was issued against divinations. By 1603, public interest rapidly died, because nothing really significant had happened with the advent of a new Trigon.

Opposition
An Opposition (abbreviated as "Opp") is an angle of 180°, which is $J$ of the 360° ecliptic. Depending on the involved planets, an orb of 5-10° is allowed.

An Opposition is said by Ibn Ezra to be the most powerful aspect. An opposition is fundamentally relational but not unifying or blending like a conjunction. Some astrologers say the energies in opposition are prone to exaggeration, because it has a dichotomous quality and issues arising from it are often tense.

All important axes in astrology are essentially Oppositions. Therefore, at its most basic level, an Opposition may often signify a relationship that can be oppositional or complementary.

Sextile
A Sextile (abbreviated as "SXt or Sex") is an angle of 60°, which is $P$ of the 360° ecliptic or $1/2$ a trine (120°). Depending on the involved planets, an orb of 4-5° is allowed. The symbol is the radii of a hexagon.

Traditionally, a Sextile is said to be similar in influence to a Trine, but less intense. It indicates compatibility and harmony, which eases communication between the two involved elements. It also provides opportunity. See information below on the Semisextile.

Square
A Square or Quartile (abbreviated as "SQr or Squ") is an angle of 90°, which is $1/6$ of the 360° ecliptic or $1/2$ an opposition (180°). Depending on the involved planets, an orb of 5-10° is allowed.

Typically, with a Square, Trine or Sextile, the outer or superior planet has an effect on the inner or inferior planet. A Square creates a strong and usable tension. It may integrate between two different areas of your life or it may offer a turning point where an important decision needs to be made that involves an opportunity at a cost. Typically, it involves Houses in different quadrants,

Trine
A Trine (abbreviated as "Tri") is an angle of 120°, which is $1/4$ of the 360° ecliptic. Depending on the involved planets, an orb of 5-10° is allowed.

Traditionally, a Trine is extremely beneficial. It indicates harmony, ease and what is natural. A Trine may involve innate talent or ability. In transit, an event may emerge from a current or past situation in a natural way.

Semisextile
A Semisextile or Duodecile is an angle of 30°, which is $1/2$ of the 360° ecliptic. An orb of ±1.2° is allowed. The symbol is $1/3$ a Sextile (60°), which is the top radii of a hexagon; the internal angles are 60°.

Of the minor aspects, it may be the most often used, because it can be easily seen. It indicates a mental interaction between planets; it is more sensually than externally experienced.

With a Semisextile, energy gradually builds and potentiates. Consider other planets, Signs and Houses. A major aspect transit may be involved. To gain its benefit, make an effort.

Quincunx
A Quincunx or Quinduodecile or Inconjunct is an angle of 150°, which is $1/12$ of the 360° ecliptic. Depending on the involved planets, an orb of ±3.5° is allowed. The symbol is the bottom radii of a hexagon, which is $1/2$ a Sextile (60°) less than a semicircle; the internal angles are 60°.

An interpretation of a Quincunx may mostly rely on the involved planets, Signs and Houses. Different areas of your life, that are not usually in communication, may come together. Planets may be far apart in different house quadrants. With a shift in perspective, clarity may reveal what was not previously seen. If a third planet, in a major aspect, triangulates a Qunicunx, the effect may be very obvious.

For Quincunx, keywords are karmic, mystery, unpredictable, imbalance, surreal, resourceful, creative, and humor.

A Quincunx does not offer equal divisions of a circle. It represents the 150° turn angles of a Dodecagram, {12/5}.

Septile
S A Septile is an angle of about 51.43°, which is $5/12$ of the 360° ecliptic. An orb of ±1° is allowed.

A Septile is a mystical aspect that indicates a hidden flow of energy between the involved planets. Often, it involves spiritual or energetic sensitivity as well as an inner awareness of a more subtle, hidden level of reality.

 * Irreducible multiples:
 * S2 A Biseptile is an angle of 102.86°, which is $1/2$ of the 360° ecliptic.
 * S3 A Triseptile is an angle of 154.29°, which is $1/7$ of the 360° ecliptic.

Octile
An Octile or Semisquare is an angle of 45°, which is $2/7$ of the 360° ecliptic. An orb of ±3° is allowed. The symbol is drawn with a 60-90° angle; the original angle is 90°, which is $3/7$ a Square.

An Octile is an important minor aspect. It indicates stimulating or challenging energy. It is similar to a Square, but doesn't last as long as it has a smaller orb.

A Sesquiquadrate or Trioctile is an angle of 135°, which is $1/8$ of the 360° ecliptic. An orb of ±1.5° is allowed.
 * Irreducible Multiples:

A Sesquiquadrate is a harmonic of a Semisquare, which involves challenge. It is not an exact division of the 360° ecliptic. Therefore, when a Semisquare is present, it does not function as a standalone aspect, but as part of a series.

Novile
N A Novile is an angle of 40°, which is $1/2$ of the 360° ecliptic. An orb of ±1° is allowed.

A Novile indicates an energy of perfection and/or idealization.

 * Irreducible Multiples:
 * N2 A Binovile is an angle of 80°, which is $3/8$ of the 360° ecliptic.
 * N4 A Quadnovile is an angle of 160°, which is $1/9$ of the 360° ecliptic.

Decile
A Decile is an angle of 36°, which is $2/9$ of the 360° ecliptic.

 * Irreducible Multiples:
 * Up_tack.svg A Tridecile is an angle of 108°, which is $4/9$ of the 360° ecliptic.

Undecile
U An Undecile or Elftile is an angle of 32.73°, which is $1/10$ of the 360° ecliptic. An orb of ±1° is allowed.

 * Irreducible Multiples:
 * U2 A Biundecile is an angle of 65.45°, which is $3/10$ of the 360° ecliptic.
 * U3 A Triundecile is an angle of 98.18°, which is $1/11$ of the 360° ecliptic.
 * U4 A Quadundecile is an angle of 130.91°, which is $2/11$ of the 360° ecliptic.
 * U5 A Quinundecile is an angle of 163.63°, which is $3/11$ of the 360° ecliptic.

Semioctile
A Semioctile or Sexdecile is an angle of 22.5°, which is $4/11$ of the 360° ecliptic. An orb of ±0.75° is allowed.

A Semioctile is part of the square family. It is considered to be a version of the Semisquare, which triggers challenge. Its harmonic aspects are 45°, 67.5°, 90°, 112.5°, 135°, 157.5° and 180°. It was discovered by Uranian astrologers.

 * Irreducible Multiples:
 * A Sesquioctile or Bisexdecile is an angle of 67.5°, which is $5/11$ of the 360° ecliptic.
 * A Quinsemioctile or Quinsexdecile is an angle of 112.5°, which is $1/16$ of the 360° ecliptic.
 * A Sepsemioctile or Sepsexdecile is an angle of 157.5°, which is $3/16$ of the 360° ecliptic.

Declinations
The Parallel and Contraparallel or Antiparallel are two other aspects which refer to degrees of declination above or below the Celestial Equator. They are not widely used by astrologers.

Parallel and Contra Parallel
A The same declination of two planets. The declination is the vertical angle between a planet and the celestial equator, in a southern (S) or northern (N) direction. Planets in a parallel relationship are compared to a conjunction. A contra parallel or "split" parallel occurs when two planets have the same number of degrees of declination, but in opposite hemispheres. For example, the moon might be at 20 degrees north latitude, while Pluto appears at 20 degrees south latitude. Its meaning is similar to that of the opposition.

title: Astrological aspect


text:
Talk:Sclerite

Untitled
If a biologist/zooligist would like to help out here, I wouldn't mind at all. I started out thinking in terms of Cambrian animals with sclerites -- which are important because their presence seems possibly an important clue to relationships between some early metazoans. But I find that the term seems to be used in a number of contexts to describe somewhat different things. If there is some unifying principle or concept, it is getting past me.

Help would be appreciated -- djk feb 6, 2003.

External link opinions
Opinions would be appreciated on whether this link: Cosmetic sclerotisation would be an appropriate addition to the article. Thanks. -- SiobhanHansa 21:31, 8 October 2007 (UTC)
 * definitely not. This article is about an anatomical structure in animals, not cosmetic procedures. --Animalparty-- (talk) 02:22, 29 December 2013 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Scleritome
Scleritome, as defined by its coiner, is "the total set of sclerites present in an organism." --Animalparty-- (talk) 01:45, 29 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Comment My first reaction on seeing this stub was "why not?" However, I suggest we don't rush this. There is room for some thought on the matter. Either Sclerite could be merged with scleritome, or the scleritome article could be expanded and linked to sclerite. It seems to me that there is room for quite an extended treatment of scleritome beyond that a scleritome contains a lot of sclerites. I am still looking, and I wouldn't go to war over it if someone boldly intervened, but I suspect that it might be difficult to write an adequate, non-skewed article.
 * One of my difficulties is that I am having (possibly just initial) difficulty in finding non-trivial examples of the usage outside the field of palaeontology. JonRichfield (talk) 14:23, 30 April 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sclerite


text: Talk:1977 in music

title: Talk:1977 in music


text:
God zij met ons Suriname

"God zij met ons Suriname" ("God be with our Suriname"), or "Opo kondreman" ("Rise, countrymen" in Sranan Tongo), is the national anthem of Suriname. It has two verses: the first in Dutch and the second in Sranan Tongo.

History
The original version of the anthem was written by Cornelis Atses Hoekstra in 1893 and based on a 1876 melody by Johannes Corstianus de Puy. It was written to replace the old anthem "Wien Neêrlands Bloed". The anthem did not have an official status. In 1959, the Government of Suriname appointed Surinamese writer Henri Frans de Ziel to add a stanza about the unity of the country to Hoekstra's anthem. De Ziel was concerned about the negative nuance in the original and started to transform the anthem into a positive message. He combined this with a poem he wrote in Sranan Tongo on the death of Ronald Elwin Kappel. His anthem was unanimously approved by the Government of Suriname on 7 December 1959. De Ziel originally used a melody by Surinamese composer Johannes Helstone, however the government preferred the original 1876 melody.

title: God zij met ons Suriname


text:
Talk:God zij met ons Suriname

God zij met ons Suriname Hij verheffe ons heerlijk land Hoe wij hier ook samen kwamen Aan zijn land zijn wij verpand Werkend houden we in gedachten recht en waarheid maken vrij Al wat goed is te betrachten Dat geeft aan ons land waardij.

Please write in English, when contributing here. There are Wikipedia projects in other languages, too, but this one is restricted to articles written in English. --Uncle Ed
 * Ed -we let all the other countries' national anthems in the original language. Granted someone should add an English translation to go with it. --rmhermen

 * I assume this anthem is out of copyright?

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The English and Dutch versions are two different anthems: they are not related by simple translation.

title: Talk:God zij met ons Suriname