conatus

American  

[koh-ney-tuhs] / koʊˈneɪ təs /

noun

plural

conatus

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

---

Etymology

Origin of conatus

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

Example Sentences

Ille stolide perrexerunt ad dicunt quod "illi conatus defecerint."

From Slate • Feb. 11, 2013

Ast verò Munsterus cum incendij tanti & tam incredilis caussas in famosissimâ Ætna inuestigare conatus sit, quam rem illic naturalem facit, hic verò præternaturalem imo infernalem faciat, an non monstri simile est?

From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 01 by Hakluyt, Richard

It also follows that there is a conatus more interior, that is, the conatus to produce uses for the animal kingdom through vegetable growths, since by these animals of every kind are nourished.

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

He ignored that inner drive which Spinoza called the conatus; or the seeds of Paracelsus or van Helmont; or the persistence over a time course of any "essence" or "form."

From Medical Investigation in Seventeenth Century England Papers Read at a Clark Library Seminar, October 14, 1967 by Bodemer, Charles W.

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 Ager, John