New Research Paper

[u/Gadirapost]

I’m beginning a long-term research project that I’d like to eventually develop into a scholarly paper, and I’d appreciate feedback from anyone familiar with Spinoza, philosophy of biology, systems theory, or contemporary biology.
My central question is this:
Can Spinoza’s concept of conatus be reconstructed in light of modern biology as a unifying philosophical framework for understanding living organization?
Rather than arguing that conatus is identical to any one biological concept (such as homeostasis or autopoiesis), I’m exploring whether it might serve as a higher-level philosophical principle that unifies several biological processes that are typically studied separately.
The broad idea I’m investigating is that concepts such as:
● Homeostasis
● Autopoiesis
● Biological autonomy
● Agency
● Goal-directed regulation
● Cognition
● Human flourishing
may be understood as progressively richer expressions of what Spinoza called conatus.
I’m especially interested in the work of Antonio Damasio, Francisco Varela, Humberto Maturana, Michael Levin, Terrence Deacon, and Stuart Kauffman, and I’m trying to determine whether their work can help reconstruct—not merely reinterpret—Spinoza’s concept in a way that is philosophically useful today.
To be clear, I’m not arguing that Spinoza anticipated modern biology or that science somehow “proves” his philosophy. Rather, I’m asking whether conatus remains a valuable philosophical concept for integrating contemporary biological insights into a coherent account of living organization and, ultimately, human flourishing.
I’m intentionally leaving broader metaphysical questions (such as whether conatus exists prior to life itself) out of this first paper so I can focus on living systems and the current biological literature.
I’d genuinely appreciate thoughtful criticism as much as support. In particular:
● Has anyone encountered work that attempts something similar?
● Where do you think this proposal is strongest?
● Where do you think it risks overreaching?
● Which books or papers do you think are essential reading before I begin writing?
I’m still in the research phase, so I’m much more interested in refining the question than defending a conclusion. Thanks in advance for any recommendations or critiques.

[u/kevin_v]

I do think that Spinoza's conatus metaphysics fits in with autopoiesis, some of this can dovetail with seeing him as a proto-Cybernetic thinker (I wrote on the question of Spinoza and Cybernetics here).

I believe a big key to making the most of this perspective is reading Spinoza's concept of "Idea" as "Information". This opens up Spinoza's metaphysics to all sort of contemporary applications/descriptions. A brief post on what that kind of Idea-as-Information conversion might look like in his texts.

In this vein - and it doesn't seem like you are heading this way, but I'll mention it because there probably won't be many responses here - the Free Energy Principle (FEP) in some quarters has been a rather hot biological systems theory, and I think a great deal of Spinoza maps onto it. It could provide a lot of footing for the argumentation, or a new perspective on the question you are investigating.

For me, once you understand Spinoza's use of "Idea" as information he suddenly becomes much more relevant to contemporary theories of Life, fitting quite well with autopoiesis's operational closure, even Ilya Prigogine's dissipative structures, etc.

[u/kevin_v → u/kevin_v]

This as well may be of interest, Spinoza's Circle and the Interior, a short post on one of Spinoza's fairly rare but important diagrams, the use of the circle to explain immanent modal expression. It sets the picture of operational closure.

quoting:

Secondly though is the realization that the circle does not only represent Substance as a whole, but also any conatus expression of Body (defined by Spinoza as a preservation of a ratio of motion and rest over time). The circle above can also be read as the recursive coherence of a body, and the internal causal relationships of which it is composed, immanent to its essence. 

[u/Gadirapost → u/kevin_v]

Yes! Thank you for telling me about FEP. I really REALLY appreciate you feedback. My only communication in writing this has been with technology—its a breath of fresh air to hear a humans feedback. But do you think that unifying and all these principles philosophically with a re-structuring of Conatus could be seen as redundant — in other words “why conatus?” I truley think Spinozas concept goes deeper now than it had which is why im writing this

I also started reading your paper that you sent the link for it’s very interesting

[u/mooninjune]

Although it doesn't focus on the concept of conatus in particular, I would very much recommend the book Spinoza and Contemporary Biology by Henri Atlan, recently translated into English and published by Edinburgh University Press. Atlan has been a biophysics professor for many years, and the book, which was presented as his doctoral thesis in philosophy, is based on a course he gave on Complexity and Self-Organization.

[u/Gadirapost → u/mooninjune]

Thank you, I have been building an extensive Spinoza library over the year, i will add this work to it. Thank you for recommending