Gersonides and Spinoza on Conatus

Pursuing ideas of Aristotle and Averroes, Gersonides (1288–1344) argued that Nature “preserves” (šomer) the existence of animals and plants and moreover “endeavors” (yištaddel) to do so. He expressed these ideas in his supercommentaries on Averroes’s Aristotelian commentaries (1321–1324), particularly the Parts of Animals and Generation of Animals; in his biblical commentaries (1325–1338); and in his philosophic Wars of the Lord (1329). His views on Nature’s preservation of existence amount to a theory of conatus, and influenced Spinoza’s (1632–1677) concept of conatus as the endeavor to “persevere” (perseverare) in being or “preserve” (conservare) one’s being (Ethics III 6–9; IV 18; et passim). Spinoza described Gersonides as vir eruditissimus (Theological-Political Treatise 9, annotation 16). Gersonides held that Nature’s preservation of the existence of plants and animals proves divine Providence over human beings (see his commentaries on Genesis 18:25 and Job 34:13). This identification of natural conatus and divine Providence is found explicitly in the writings of the young Spinoza (Short Treatise I 5).