“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognised need of the human soul.”
— Simone Weil[verifiable: The Need for Roots (L'Enracinement), published 1949; translated by Arthur Wills (1952)]
Commentary
This opening statement of The Need for Roots describes rootedness, the sense of belonging to a living community and a tradition, as a basic human need that modern society has neglected. Weil wrote the book during the postwar reconstruction of France, and she argued that the uprooting of workers and peasants had produced spiritual and political disorder. Simone Pétrement's biography (1976) places the book within Weil's commitment to the lives of ordinary people and her critique of the centralised state. Robert Coles, in his study of Weil (1987), shows how the idea of roots shaped her thinking about education, labour, and obligation. Eric Springsted (1986) notes the affinity between rootedness and the attentive love that Weil describes elsewhere. The sentence is the book's opening claim, and its English rendering should be checked against the French.
Commentary
This opening statement of The Need for Roots describes rootedness, the sense of belonging to a living community and a tradition, as a basic human need that modern society has neglected. Weil wrote the book during the postwar reconstruction of France, and she argued that the uprooting of workers and peasants had produced spiritual and political disorder. Simone Pétrement's biography (1976) places the book within Weil's commitment to the lives of ordinary people and her critique of the centralised state. Robert Coles, in his study of Weil (1987), shows how the idea of roots shaped her thinking about education, labour, and obligation. Eric Springsted (1986) notes the affinity between rootedness and the attentive love that Weil describes elsewhere. The sentence is the book's opening claim, and its English rendering should be checked against the French.