To Conserve is To Create: a Review of Spinoza’s Paradoxical Conservatism

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In this book, François Zourabichvili addresses three major themes of Spinoza’s philosophy, namely ethical emendation, childhood, and politics. Through the notion of transformation, the author argues that Spinozism is a “paradoxical conservatism” insofar as the Dutch philosopher develops a theory in which a transformation of the essence means death, and the main concern of this system is to create something that will be able to conserve itself. In this review, I argue that by linking together the problems of emendation, pedagogy, and political change, Zourabichvili grants a striking political relevance to both ethical emendation and pedagogy, introducing an alternative to revolutionary change without being less radical.