conatus

American  

[koh-nay-tuhs] / koʊˈneɪ təs /

noun

• conatus
  plural

1. an effort or striving.

2. a force or tendency simulating a human effort.

3. (in the philosophy of Spinoza) the force in every animate creature toward the preservation of its existence.

---

conatus British  

/ kəʊˈneɪtəs /

noun

1. an effort or striving of natural impulse

2. (esp in the philosophy of Spinoza) the tendency of all things to persist in their own being

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• conatus
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of conatus

1655–65; < Latin: exertion, equivalent to cōnā ( rī ) to attempt + -tus suffix of v. action

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

conatus

This desire is the perpetual conatus of that love, from which flow all its effects.

From The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love by Emanuel Swedenborg

And since good and evil are opposites, there is an intermediate, and in it an equilibrium, in which evil acts against good; but as it does not prevail, it stops in a conatus.

From The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love by Emanuel Swedenborg

That this is so may still seem doubtful, because not illustrated by applications to sensible and perceptible things in nature; nevertheless, such is the progression of conatus, force, and motion into power.

From Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom by John Ager

But let application of this be made to living conatus, and to living force, and to living motion.

From Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom by John Ager

And attraction, a kind of conatus accedendi, is the crown, according to the eighteenth century, of the series of secondary causes.

From Benjamin Franklin Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notes by Chester E. Jorgenson

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---