https://booksandideas.net// Books & Ideas is the English-language mirror website of La Vie des Idées, a free online journal which has gained a large readership and established itself in France as a major place for intellectual debate since 2007. en SPIP - www.spip.net https://booksandideas.net/local/cache-vignettes/L144xH68/siteon0-04014.png?1675949311 https://booksandideas.net// 68 144 https://booksandideas.net/Essay-against-giving https://booksandideas.net/Essay-against-giving 2008-04-22T06:05:00Z text/html en Pascal Sévérac Philosophy anthropology giving spinozism <p>Essay against giving: using the Spinozist concept of <i>conatus</i> (striving) to analyse the self-serving structure of giving in all its guises, Lordon offers a worthy mix of philosophy and social sciences. Through <i>conatus</i>, giving appears as a construct of selflessness that is concerned in fact with averting the violence that stems from human relationships. But doesn't <i>conatus</i>, as expounded in Spinozist philosophy, portray a purely warlike anthropology?</p>