Definition of "conatus" []

• An effort, an endeavour, a striving. (noun)
• A nisus. (noun)

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• "He took the philosophical idea of a "conatus" - a striving to continue to exist and thereby to preserve one's essence - as his general principle."
• "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."
• "In Spinoza's view, we act virtuously if we act rationally to strive to exist, in accordance with this idea of a "conatus"."