Essay against giving: using the Spinozist concept of conatus (striving) to analyse the self-serving structure of giving in all its guises, Lordon offers a worthy mix of philosophy and social sciences. Through conatus, giving appears as a construct of selflessness that is concerned in fact with averting the violence that stems from human relationships. But doesn’t conatus, as expounded in Spinozist philosophy, portray a purely warlike anthropology?
