The presented study takes up the problem of Bataille's impossible testimony of the impossible. This endeavor represents a wider contextual framework for a project of this thesis which proposes a way of laying down the foundation for a philosophical reading of Bataille's L'expérience intérieure by developing some key moments of his anthropology. Bataille's thought is introduced as the dynamics of a gesture of testimony (or a witnessing) which testifies to the difference du sens as it is being incorporated in the movement of writing (écriture) into the texts of La Somme Athéologique. Since these texts oftentimes resist a direct philosophical treatment, this essay discusses the possibilities of a philosophical approach to Bataille. Such discussion results in setting up the necessary limitations of an adequate philosophical attitude towards Bataille's thought while leaving its problematic quality in play. Then the narrower framework of this essay is put into work in an attempt to achieve an understanding of key parts of The Inner Experience through a philosophical analysis of Bataille's concept of humanity.

In the last decades a number of studies have shed light on early modern scientific experience. While some of these studies have focused on how new facts were forced out of nature in so-called experimental situations, others have charted long-term transformations. In this dissertation I explore a rather different facet of scientific experience by focusing on the case of the Prussian university town Halle in the period from the late seventeenth till the mid-eighteenth century. At this site philosophers, theologians and physicians were preoccupied with categories such as inner senses, inner experience, living experience, psychological experiments and psychometrics. In the study I argue that these hitherto almost completely overlooked categories take us away from observations of external things to the internal organisation of experience and to entirely internal objects of experience. Rather than seeing this internal side of scientific experience as mere theory and epistemology, I argue that it was an integral and central part of what has been referred to as the cultura animi tradition, that is, the philosophical and medical tradition of approaching the soul as something in need of cultivation, education, disciplination and cure. The study contains four empirical chapters. In the first chapter I analyse the meaning and function of experience in Christian Wolff’s philosophy understood as spiritual exercise and cultura animi. In the second chapter I examine experience in the theologian Hermann Francke’s cultura animi, focusing particularly on the relation between scientific experience and what scholars have referred to as religious experience. In the third chapter I chart aesthetic experience in Alexander Baumgarten’s aesthetics. In the fourth chapter I examine the role of experience in the medicine of Georg Ernst Stahl, Friedrich Hoffmann and their followers. The analysis of medical experience channels the discussion into questions regarding the relation between the cultura animi tradition and the kind of attitudes, practices and processes that have been connected to modern objectivity.

L’écriture de soi relève d’un genre littéraire difficilement définissable, mais qui est pourtant issu d’une longue tradition mettant en scène les différentes modalités d’approche du soi et de l’œuvre. La publication de carnets personnels remplis par des auteurs et des autrices d’envergure témoigne du rôle capital que joue cette pratique de l’intime au niveau de l’élaboration d’une pensée. Néanmoins, les études littéraires tendent à négliger l’importance de cette forme d’écriture dans une perspective de transformation de la psychè par l’écrit. Simone Weil, philosophe et mystique française du XXe siècle, a marqué de son empreinte le genre du carnet. Les nombreux cahiers personnels qu’elle a légués à la postérité illustrent une construction au présent d’un esprit riche et vivant qui associe la réflexion intellectuelle à l’autodiscipline. Le présent mémoire propose notamment de mettre en lumière le rôle fondamental du carnet dans le processus créatif de la philosophe. Cet angle d’analyse viendra ainsi éclairer de façon nouvelle les études portant sur l’œuvre weilienne. Ce mémoire s’ouvrira par une Introduction qui revient sur la tradition de la pratique du carnet en Occident dont s’imprègne Weil. Depuis l’Antiquité grecque, l’écriture personnelle s’articule autour des exercices de soi, dans un souci de perfectionnement spirituel. Cette approche est particulièrement visible avec la forme des hypomnêmata – des notes prises – introduite par les écoles philosophiques gréco-romaines, puis prolongées dans les pratiques monacales du christianisme primitif qui privilégient le sacrifice de soi. Une fois ce contexte bien établi, le corps du mémoire abordera plus spécifiquement le corpus des carnets weiliens. Dans un premier chapitre, une présentation de la vie et de l’œuvre de l’intellectuelle sera donnée, à la suite duquel plusieurs thématiques propres aux carnets feront l’objet d’une analyse. Il s’agira tout d’abord de s’intéresser au dressage de soi au moyen de l’écriture personnelle. Cette conscience de soi maintenue par le carnet me mènera à interroger la part du subjectif dans l’appréhension du monde chez la philosophe. Le regard sur l’extérieur me conduira ensuite à traiter de la riche intertextualité des carnets weiliens. Après m’être ainsi intéressée aux récits littéraires, je porterai enfin mon attention sur l’influence de l’expérience intérieure dans le concept de décréation développé par Weil. Le rôle particulier de l’écrit dans le processus d’inspiration sera souligné à ce stade. Cette étude propose en somme d’appréhender la pensée de la philosophe au prisme de l’écriture de soi. Elle permet également d’ouvrir la réflexion sur un enjeu plus large : le rôle de l’écriture personnelle dans la construction du sujet et de sa psychè, ainsi que les différentes approches faisant du carnet un véritable compagnon de vie de l’écrivaine. / Self-writing has come to constitute a literary genre which is difficult to define yet is part of a long tradition offering writers various means and methods of approaching their own psyche and body of work. The publication of personal notebooks written by major authors indeed demonstrates the crucial role played by this intimate practice in the elaboration of intellectual systems. Literary studies have nevertheless tended to neglect the transformational impact of this specific form of writing. Simone Weil, a French mystic and philosopher of the 20th century, has particularly enriched the genre of self-writing. The numerous notebooks she wrote show the construction of a deep and vivid mind that associates intellectual creation with strong self-discipline. The present master’s thesis will aim at highlighting the fundamental role of the notebook within the creative process of this philosopher. Such a perspective should shed new light on certain aspects of the academic literature dedicated to Weil’s works. The Introduction of this thesis offers an overview of the Western tradition of personal notebooks, which exerted a vast influence on Weil’s writings. Since Greek antiquity, writing in the first person has been an important part of self-improvement exercises, aimed at spiritual perfection. This approach is particularly visible in the hypomnêmata – taking of notes – introduced by Greek and Roman philosophical schools and developed in early Christian monastic practices focused on self-sacrifice. Once this context has been established, the main body of the thesis will focus more specifically on Weil’s notebooks. A first chapter will present her life and works, which will then allow for a focus on certain themes present in her personal writing. I will begin by focusing on self- mastery through means of writing in the first person. Next, I will analyse the importance of subjectivity in this philosopher’s worldview, before dealing with the rich intertextuality of Weil’s notebooks. Finally, I will deal with the influence of Weil’s personal experience on her own concept of décréation. The importance of writing in the inspiration process will be of particular interest in this final chapter. The main objective of this thesis is to analyse Weil’s writings through the lens of self-writing. It additionally aims at broadening analytical perspectives on the importance of personal writing in the construction of self and insisting on the role of the notebook as a life companion for the writer.