conatus

American  

[koh-ney-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.

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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

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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

Here, however, I choose to confirm them only by the conatus, forces and motions in dead and in living subjects.

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

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

And as the human form is made up of all the things there are in man, it follows that love or the will is in a continual conatus and effort to form all these.

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

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 Swedenborg, Emanuel

This conatus is afterwards continuous from the lands through the root even to outmosts, and from outmosts to firsts, wherein use itself is in its origin.

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