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The article focuses on the emergence of the philosophy of Baruch de Spinoza in France. It traces the history of the reception of Spinoza's works by such philosophers as Pierre Bayle, Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze. It notes that prior to its French identity, Spinozism had first of all been German. It recalls that the 1990s have been the theater for a growing internationalization of Spinoza research.

The article focuses on the contemporary French philosophy. The author argues that it constitutes a new moment of philosophical creativity, both particular and universal. The problem is to identify this endeavor. What took place in France, in philosophy, between 1940 and the end of the 20th century? The French philosophical moment encompassed a new appropriation of German thought, a vision of science as creativity, a radical political engagement and a search for new forms in art and life. Across these operations runs the common attempt to find a new position, or disposition, for the concept: to displace the relation between the concept and its external environment by developing new relations to existence, to thought, to action, and to the movement of forms.

In his essay On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany, of 1834, Heinrich Heine suggested to his French audience that the German propensity for ‘metaphysical abstractions’ had led many people to condemn philosophy for its failure to have a practical effect, Germany having only had its revolution in thought, while France had its in reality. Heine, albeit somewhat ironically, refuses to join those who condemn philosophy: ‘German philosophy is an important matter, which concerns the whole of humanity, and only the last grandchildren will be able to judge whether we should be blamed or praised for working out our philosophy before our revolution.’ He then makes the following prognosis:the German revolution will not be more mild and more gentle because it was preceded by Kantian critique, Fichtean transcendental idealism and even philosophy of nature. Revolutionary forces have developed via these doctrines which are just waiting for the day when they can break out and fill the world with horror and admiration. … Don't smile at my advice, the advice of a dreamer who warns you about Kantians, Fichteans and philosophers of nature. Don't smile at the fantast who expects the same revolution in the realm of appearance as took place in the realm of spirit. … A play will be performed in Germany in comparison with which the French Revolution could appear just as a harmless idyll (ibid., pp. 616–17). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]