The Conatus Game

How the game works

Spinoza holds that a thing strives to persevere in its own being, and that its power of acting rises when it understands and falls when it is acted upon. The board is that field. Adequate ideas, common notions, knowledge of the third kind and joy raise the score, and joy restores power. The passive affects fall from above and cost you a life each. Three strikes and the multitude prevails.

Adequate ideas are worth ten points. A common notion raises the multiplier and adds to the score. Knowledge of the third kind is worth a hundred and restores one understanding, which slows the field for a moment when you press Space. Time on the field also scores, at twice the level each second.

Where the affects come from

Every name on the field is taken from the Ethics. Fear and hope are the inconstant affects of a doubtful thing, defined in the third part of the Definitions of the Emotions. Envy, hatred, pride and despair are defined beside them. An inadequate idea is described in Part II, Proposition 35, where falsity is the privation of knowledge. Common notions and the third kind of knowledge follow from Part II, Proposition 40 and its notes. Superstition, which grows from the prejudice of final causes, is described in the appendix to the first part of the Ethics.

What falls on the field

An inadequate idea, fear, hope, envy, hatred, pride, superstition and despair, in that order, one kind arriving every few levels. It is worth catching an adequate idea, a common notion, knowledge of the third kind, and joy. The legend under the board names each figure with its colour and the sentence it is drawn from.

Controls: the arrow keys or W A S D, the pad under the board, or a drag across the board itself. Space reasons. P pauses. The game records your best score in this browser only.

Prefer to be examined instead? Sit the Spinoza examination, ten questions on the same philosophy. New to the system? Begin with Spinoza 101.