Talk:Self-preservation
Self preservation
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.