Papers by Christopher Thomas
Southern Journal of Philosophy, 2024
If the guiding question of ethics is how should I live? then the guiding question of aesthetics m... more If the guiding question of ethics is how should I live? then the guiding question of aesthetics might be: what is beauty? For Simone Weil, these two questions have intertwined answers that turn on a like conceptual apparatus. Focussing on Weil's foremost ethical problem, the plight of the afflicted (malheur), this article offers an account of the philosophical basis to Weil's claim that, when truly recognised, beauty and affliction motivate the same form of experience. I argue that, for Weil, Both the aesthetic and moral disposition are grounded in an experience of the real, an experience that both requires and compels the subject to the same attentive disposition. Finally, I address the charges that might be levelled at Weil for suggesting that our experience of beauty is the same as our experience of affliction, specifically arguing that rather than this experience leading to a form of passive aesthetic arrest, as the experience of beauty has typically been theorised to lead to, Weil understands the experience of beauty and affliction as fundamentally motivational towards the Good.
Bloomsbury Library for 20th-Century French Thought, 2022
A short, popular article published on The Philosophical Salon (Los Angeles Review of Books) in Au... more A short, popular article published on The Philosophical Salon (Los Angeles Review of Books) in August 2020.
The recent murder of George Floyd has motivated a renewed interrogation of systemic racism in contemporary society. For those who want to address their complicity in racial injustice, the demands of the oppressed can often be overwhelming and confusing. Simone Weil's philosophy can help us make sense of two demands that appear to be in contradiction: that white people both speak up and be silent. By pointing out that contradictions point to a failure of understanding rather than to the fallibility of the problem, Weil helps us understand the seemingly impossible demands of the just action.
European Journal of Philosophy
Spinoza's philosophy is often overlooked when it comes to thinking about matters concerning art a... more Spinoza's philosophy is often overlooked when it comes to thinking about matters concerning art and culture. While recent work has done much to address this, his philosophy remains ambiguously related to the theorisation of things such as temples, poems, and paintings. This paper argues that it is by turning to Spinoza's theorisation of the sacred in the Theological-Political Treatise, that we can best derive his philosophical position on culture and its objects. I argue that Spinoza locates the sanctity of a religious object-what he calls its 'articulateness'-in its particular use-relation with a people. In a similar manner, Spinoza locates the 'meaning' and articulateness of words in the use that people make of them, thereby secularising the sanctification process for cultural objects. I argue that this relation of 'use' between cultural-religious objects and human beings and their societies is the way in which we can best discern Spinoza's philosophical position regarding art and culture, as well as further develop his potential contribution to cultural and art theory.
International Journal for Philosophical Studies, 2020
For Simone Weil the invocation of 'rights' to address extreme human suffering-what she calls 'aff... more For Simone Weil the invocation of 'rights' to address extreme human suffering-what she calls 'affliction'-is 'ludicrously inadequate'. Rights, Weil argues, invite a response, whereas what the afflicted require is not dialogue but simply to be heard. For Weil, hearing the 'cry' of the afflicted is the basis of all justice. The task of such a hearing is given over to Weil's concept of attention, which demands an ethics of creative silence. This paper will argue that central to Weil's ethics of attention, and thus the way she thinks we should show compassion and act justly, is the Kantian aesthetic concept of disinterestedness. I will argue that whilst Weil is influenced by Kant in multiple ways, it is his aesthetics, rather than his normative moral theory, that is most at play in her own ethical theory of attention.
Philosophy and Literature, 2020
The lack of any explicit engagement with art and aesthetics, coupled with his strong rationalism ... more The lack of any explicit engagement with art and aesthetics, coupled with his strong rationalism and naturalism, has led to the claim that Spinoza's philosophy is actively 'hostile' to art. Contrary to these claims, this essay will offer a speculative engagement between certain key principles of Spinozism and a poem by the Futurist poet Mina Loy. I argue that when viewed under Spinoza's ontology of power and through his relational theory of the individual, works of art and literature emerge as particularly active sites of relation that are both constitutive of and constituted by a wider affective field.
Epoché: A. journal for the history of philosophy
Book Chapters by Christopher Thomas
Book Reviews by Christopher Thomas
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 2019
Conference Presentations by Christopher Thomas
Conference Programme for 'Contemporary and Historical Perspectives on Spinoza and culture', organ... more Conference Programme for 'Contemporary and Historical Perspectives on Spinoza and culture', organised by Dr Christopher Thomas.
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Papers by Christopher Thomas
The recent murder of George Floyd has motivated a renewed interrogation of systemic racism in contemporary society. For those who want to address their complicity in racial injustice, the demands of the oppressed can often be overwhelming and confusing. Simone Weil's philosophy can help us make sense of two demands that appear to be in contradiction: that white people both speak up and be silent. By pointing out that contradictions point to a failure of understanding rather than to the fallibility of the problem, Weil helps us understand the seemingly impossible demands of the just action.
Book Chapters by Christopher Thomas
Book Reviews by Christopher Thomas
Conference Presentations by Christopher Thomas
The recent murder of George Floyd has motivated a renewed interrogation of systemic racism in contemporary society. For those who want to address their complicity in racial injustice, the demands of the oppressed can often be overwhelming and confusing. Simone Weil's philosophy can help us make sense of two demands that appear to be in contradiction: that white people both speak up and be silent. By pointing out that contradictions point to a failure of understanding rather than to the fallibility of the problem, Weil helps us understand the seemingly impossible demands of the just action.