Various academic posts, including a Professorship at the University of Lille.
Eric Weil’s philosophical development was influenced by a revival of Hegelian studies in France during the interwar period. Broadly, there are two interpretations of Hegel’s political philosophy. The first is that which presents Hegel as a reactionary: with his theory of the state, he simply wished to endorse the political status quo of contemporary Prussian absolutism. His political thought is also, on this view, regarded as the forerunner of German imperialism and National Socialism. The second interpretation of Hegel is that of a philosopher whose works are in the mainstream of Western political thought. According to this view. Hegel was a moderate reformist and a theorist of the modern constitutional state. This view was pioneered in the latter half of the twentieth century by three Hegelian scholars: T. M. Knox, Joachim Ritter and Eric Weil. It is due to their work that the first interpretation has now been superseded by the second. Weil, following Hegel, considers the use and development of reason to be crucial to progress in ethics and politics. Reason leads to freedom and happiness, whereas the failure to develop its use accounts for the climate of despondency, confusion and lack of direction in postwar Western European societies.