Ecological Ethics and the Philosophy of Simone Weil: Decreation for the Anthropocene

— —

Kathryn Lawson

Ecological Ethics and the Philosophy of Simone Weil

Decreation for the Anthropocene

Kathryn Lawson

$106.95 $85.87

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Routledge
27 October 2025

The Arts: General & Reference; Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500; Ethics & moral philosophy; Environmentalist thought & ideology; Applied ecology

Series: Routledge Environmental Ethics

This book places the philosophy of Simone Weil into conversation with contemporary environmental concerns in the Anthropocene.

The book offers a systematic interpretation of Simone Weil, making her ethical philosophy more accessible to non-Weil scholars. Weil’s work has been influential in many fields, including politically and theologically-based critiques of social inequalities and suffering, but rarely linked to ecology. Kathryn Lawson argues that Weil’s work can be understood as offering a coherent approach with potentially widespread appeal applicable to our ethical relations to much more than just other human beings. She suggests that the process of ""decreation"" in Weil is an expansion of the self which might also come to include the surrounding earth and a vast assemblage of others. This allows readers to consider what it means to be human in this time and place, and to contemplate our ethical responsibilities both to other humans and also to the more-than-human world. Ultimately, the book uses Weil’s thought to decenter the human being by cultivating human actions towards an ecological ethics.

This book will be useful for Simone Weil scholars and academics, as well as students and researchers interested in environmental ethics in departments of comparative literature, theory and criticism, philosophy, and environmental studies.

For further discussion on the book, please check out the following podcast and book launch links below:

https://youtu.be/oOUEeSiMrh8?si=eLXDpKrQHd8E6SFU https://youtu.be/sIc1jIw_CW8?si=xQPeW4iK-8vC3pnA https://youtu.be/jf12ZVRr3oY?si=z7Z9xRdEn8fhaMGY

By: Kathryn Lawson
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 400g
ISBN: 9781032583266
ISBN 10: 1032583266
Series: Routledge Environmental Ethics
Pages: 202
Publication Date: 27 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: Finding Simone Weil in an Ecological Void Part 1. Growing Roots: A Reading of Simone Weil 1. Mapping an Ethics of Decreation 2. The Faculties 3. The Power of Force 4. Attention and Mediation 5. Decreation and Action Part 2. Plato and the Environment 6. Contemporary Dualistic Ecological Readings of Plato’s Phaedrus 7. A Nondual Reading of Plato via Metaxu Part 3. Decreation for the Anthropocene 8. Weil and Anthropocene Ethics 9. A Weilian-Inspired Ecological Ethics 10. Action in the Anthropocene

Kathryn Lawson is a lecturer of philosophy at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She is co-editor of Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil: Unprecedented Conversations (2024) and Breached Horizons: The Philosophy of Jean-Luc Marion (2017) and author of a number of peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters.

Reviews for Ecological Ethics and the Philosophy of Simone Weil: Decreation for the Anthropocene

""In response to the traumas of climate catastrophe, Lawson’s Ecological Ethics shows us that suffering and beauty can be integrated at the heart of environmental consciousness. Like Keller’s Face of the Deep and Leopold’s Sand County Almanac, this is a rare treasure that unites profound intellectual insight and ethical urgency."" Daniel O’Dea Bradley, Professor of Philosophy, Gonzaga University, USA