THE CONATUS OF THE BODY IN SPINOZA’S PHYSICS Cover Image

THE CONATUS OF THE BODY IN SPINOZA’S PHYSICS
THE CONATUS OF THE BODY IN SPINOZA’S PHYSICS

Author(s): Sean Winkler
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Editura Universităţii Vasile Goldiş
Keywords: Spinoza; physics; individuation; body; conatus; inertia; motion; rest.

Summary/Abstract: In Part 3 of his Ethics, Baruch Spinoza identifies the conatus of the mind as „will‟ and of the mind and body together as „appetite‟/„desire,‟ but he does not identify the conatus of the body. This omission is curious, given that he describes „motion-and-rest‟ and conatus in such ways that they appear to be one and the same thing. In this paper, however, I propose that motion-and-rest and conatus (in the attribute of extension) can be understood as two distinct aspects, relational and singular, of Spinoza‟s theory of the individuation of bodies. In Section 1, I explain Spinoza‟s account of the body. In Section 2, I reject the notion that the conatus of the body is a principle of rectilinear inertia. In Section 3, I indicate that besides conatus, Spinoza uses other terms throughout his texts to denote the concept of striving, each of which alludes to a relational and singular aspect of his theory of individuation. In Section 4, I show that for Spinoza, motion-and-rest refers to the relational („preindividual‟) aspect of the body and that conatus (in the attribute of extension) refers to the singular (individuated) aspect of the body.

  • Issue Year: X/2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 95-114
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: English