Work · Political Philosophy & Ethics (20th–21st c.)
The Need for Roots
Obligations precede rights: the needs of the soul and the uprootedness of modern people.
Introduction
Weil wrote the book in London in early 1943 for the Free French, as a study of how France might be rebuilt after liberation; she died that August. Albert Camus published it in 1949 in a series he edited at Gallimard, and the English translation of 1952 carried a preface by T. S. Eliot. The subtitle calls it a prelude to a declaration of duties towards the human being. Weil lists the “needs of the soul”, among them order, liberty, obedience, responsibility, equality, honour, security and risk. The second part describes the uprootedness of workers, peasants and the nation, and the third how a people might be inspired anew.
Read the full text
Free full text, often an older edition or translation
More works by Simone Weil
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made