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.

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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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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

Nequaquam enim mortem intentat matri, sed actione, quam non ipse sed corpus matris producit, conatur ad lucem pervenire, et iste conatus non nisi ex naturali concursu rerum fit matri causa mortis.

From Essays In Pastoral Medicine by ?Malley, Austin

M. Manlius, unde Gallos depulerat, inde ipse praecipitatus est, quia fortiter defensam libertatem nefarie opprimere conatus fuerat.

From Helps to Latin Translation at Sight by Luce, Edmund

Moreover, within everything spiritual there is a conatus to clothe itself with a body.

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.