Talk:Self preservation
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[edit] Self preservation
<Commenting on the phrase in Self preservation—Self preservation is part of an animal's instinct which demands that the organism survives at all costs. Pain and fear are parts of this mechanism.>
From Harry Austryn Wolfson's The Philosophy of Spinoza 1934, Reprint edition 1983; ISBN: 0674665953; Vol 2: p. 195; Conatus:
- But increase and diminution imply a certain standard of measurement. What the standard is by which the affections of the body are measured, to ascertain whether the acting power of the body is increased or diminished by them, is explained by Spinoza in Propositions IV-X. The standard of measurement, he says, is the conatus (effort, impulse) by which each thing endeavors to persevere in its own being. Every affection of the body is said to increase the acting power of the body in so far as it increases that endeavor for self-preservation; it diminishes the acting power of the body in so far as it diminishes that endeavor. This endeavor for self-preservation is the first law of nature and is the basis of all our emotions.
Yesselman 17:14, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Wolfson's Conatus
<Commenting on the phrase in Self preservation—Latin Conatus: Everything, in so far as it is in itself, endeavours to persist in its own being.>
From Harry Austryn Wolfson's The Philosophy of Spinoza 1934, Reprint edition 1983; ISBN: 0674665953; Vol 2: p. 204:
- Thus "conatus," "will," "appetite," and "desire" are all taken by Spinoza as related terms. They all have in common, according to him, the general meaning of a striving for self-preservation and of a pursuance of the means to further the attainment of this self-preservation. This striving is not a free act by which an affirmation or denial is made, but rather an act which follows from the necessity of the eternal Nature of G-D. Desire, then, is not a pursuit of something which has already been adjudged as good, for such a judgment follows rather than precedes this kind of desire. "We neither strive for (conari), wish (velle), seek (appetare) nor desire (cupere) anything because we think it to be good, but on the contrary, we adjudge a thing to be good because we strive for, wish, seek, or desire it" (3P9n). And since to Spinoza any object which affects us with pleasure is called good (4P8p), what he has said of good applies also to pleasant, that is to say, we do not desire a thing because it is pleasant, but, on the contrary, a thing is pleasant because we desire it. Still ....
Yesselman 17:35, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
- Just plunking the phrase into the article as if it were a dictionary entry doesn't seem right -- can someone write a transition or somesuch that ties together/clarifies the significance of "conatus" with the actual article title. EEMeltonIV 15:28, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
