Éric Weil (1904–1977)
German-born French philosopher, naturalized 1938. Author of Logique de la philosophie (Vrin 1950) and Hegel et l'État (Vrin 1950) — both works on Hegel and post-Hegelian philosophy. Parallel reader of Hegel to MP in the late 1940s; lectured at the Collège philosophique (under Wahl's direction) on Hegel in 1948–50. MP attends Weil's seminars; serves on Weil's 1950 thesis jury (alongside Hyppolite, Vermeil, Wahl). The MP-Weil exchange on the Logique de la philosophie manuscript reveals MP's own logic-and-phenomenology framework (in dialogue with Weil's more classical-logical approach).
Key Points
- Born Hamburg 1904; doctorate Berlin 1928 (with Cassirer); fled Germany 1933; naturalized French 1938; WWII French army, prisoner of war 1940–45.
- Logique de la philosophie (Vrin 1950) — the principal thesis, defended at Sorbonne 17 March 1950. Argues for philosophy as logic — but in a sense more classical than Hegelian. Jury: Hyppolite, Vermeil, Wahl, Merleau-Ponty.
- Hegel et l'État. Cinq conférences suivies de Marx et la philosophie du droit (Vrin 1950) — the complementary thesis, originally five conferences at the Collège philosophique 1948–50. Reads Hegel as the philosopher of the State without hopping over to Marx — a methodological choice MP rejects in PPH (which insists on the Hegel→Marx→marxism trajectory).
- Long-time engagement with Kant (Problèmes kantiens, 1963) and the post-Kantian tradition.
- Director of the journal Archives de philosophie du droit (1958 onward).
Role in This Wiki
Parallel Hegel-reading to MP's PPH
Weil's Hegel et l'État (1950) is contemporaneous with MP's PPH course (1947–48). Their methodological differences are illuminating:
| Axis | MP's PPH (1947–48) | Weil's Hegel et l'État (1948–50) |
|---|---|---|
| Hegel → Marx | Yes, the trajectory is internal to Hegel | No, stays with Hegel; Marx is the appendix |
| Phenomenology focus | Strong (master/slave detour at heart of Greek world) | Less; focuses on the State in Principles of Right |
| Language | Long, recursive paraphrase | Compact, conceptual analysis |
| Marxist commitment | Strong (proletariat, individu de classe) | Reserved (Hegel as primary; Marx as one critique) |
MP's choice to not cite Weil in PPH despite their shared institutional context is a methodological choice: MP's reading of Hegel is deliberately not the Weil reading. Dalissier suggests this is partly a chronological matter (Weil's Hegel et l'État postdates the PPH course), but partly a structural divergence: MP is primarily a Hegel-Marx reader; Weil is primarily a Hegel-Logic reader.
The 1950 thesis jury
MP serves on Weil's Sorbonne thesis jury (17 March 1950) alongside Hyppolite, Vermeil, and Wahl. The jury is the first time MP and Hyppolite are formally united in the post-war philosophical-academic establishment — a structural moment in MP's institutional rise (he becomes Sorbonne maître de conférences the previous October 1949, and Collège de France in 1953).
MP's letter on the Logique de la philosophie manuscript
MP writes Weil (late 1948 / early 1949) about Weil's Logique de la philosophie manuscript, which Weil had submitted to MP's Bibliothèque de philosophie collection at Gallimard:
"MP juge difficilement publiable dans la collection 'Bibliothèque de philosophie', qu'il se préparait à (co-)diriger avec Sartre aux éditions Gallimard à partir de 1950. Pour justifier un semblable jugement, Merleau-Ponty avance qu'une telle collection serait d'un esprit trop phénoménologique (husserlien) pour publier ce qu'il nomme 'votre Logique'."
MP rejects Weil's Logique for the Bibliothèque on grounds of too-classical logic. The dispute reveals MP's own framework as non-classical, non-formal, non-standard, non-dialectical-in-Hegel-sense — what MP calls in PPH "logique de fait" and what the Mexico III lecture frames as "la métaphysique est dans l'expérience."
The 1950 Hegel et l'État anchor
Weil's Hegel et l'État gives MP a negative philological anchor: a Hegel-reading that deliberately stays at Hegel, against MP's choice to traverse Hegel-to-Marx. Reading the two works in parallel reveals MP's distinctive methodological commitment.
Connections
- Hegel-commentator parallel of Hyppolite and Kojève — but with the Logic-and-State anchor (vs phenomenology-genesis vs master/slave).
- Lecturer at Wahl's Collège philosophique (the Hegel et l'État conferences 1948–50).
- Refused by MP for the Bibliothèque de philosophie collection on grounds of insufficient phenomenology.
- Sorbonne thesis jury member alongside MP (1950).
Sources
- merleau-ponty-2022-inedits-ii-1947-1949 — Dalissier editorial introduction (pp. 79–82) on the MP-Weil correspondence and the 1950 thesis jury; the late-1948 / early-1949 MP letter to Weil on the Logique manuscript.
- É. Weil, Logique de la philosophie (Vrin, 1950) — the principal thesis.
- É. Weil, Hegel et l'État. Cinq conférences suivies de Marx et la philosophie du droit (Vrin, 1950) — the complementary thesis.