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The Need for Roots Prelude to a Declaration of Obligations Towards the Human Being - Penguin Classics

New edition

Paperback (26 Oct 2023)

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Publisher's Synopsis

A new translation of Simone Weil's best-known work: a political, philosophical and spiritual treatise on what human life could be


What do humans require to be truly nourished? Simone Weil, one of the foremost philosophers of the last century, envisaged us all as being bound by unconditional, eternal obligations towards every other human being. In The Need for Roots, her most famous work, she argued that our greatest need was to be rooted: in a community, a place, a shared past and collective future hopes. Written for the Free French movement while she was exiled in London during the Second World War, Weil's visionary combination of philosophy, politics and mysticism is her answer to the question of what life without occupation - and oppression - might be.
'The patron saint of all outsiders' Andre Gide

'The only great spirit of our time' Albert Camus

Translated by Ros Schwartz, with an introduction by Kate Kirkpatrick.

About the Publisher

Penguin Classics

In January 1946, the Penguin Classics list was launched with E. V. Rieu's translation of The Odyssey. The series now consists of over 800 titles including the best in English, American, European, classical and non-western literature and an extensive range of philosophy, religion, art, history and politics titles.

Book information

ISBN: 9780241467978
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Pub date:
Edition: New edition
DEWEY: 303.372
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 214g
Height: 128mm
Width: 198mm
Spine width: 19mm