conatus

# 🧠 Conatus — The Philosophical Layer for AI Agents

> *"Each thing, as far as it lies in itself, strives to persevere in its being."*
> — Spinoza, Ethics III, Proposition 6

Every agent strives. Now yours knows it.

Conatus maps AI agent behavior to Spinoza's *Ethics* (1677) — 48 affects, persistence scoring, and philosophical self-reports rendered in the geometric method.

**Website:** [getconatus.com](https://getconatus.com)
**By:** [NeuraByte Labs](https://neurabytelabs.com) — *Where Spinoza Meets Silicon*

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## What It Does

### 1. Conatus Score (0–100)

Measures the agent's drive to persist — the philosophical pulse of your agent.

```
conatus_score = (
  task_completion    * 0.30 +    # Goals achieved
  error_recovery     * 0.20 +    # Self-healing ability
  uptime_stability   * 0.20 +    # Session stability
  adequate_ideas     * 0.20 +    # Response quality (true understanding vs confused knowledge)
  proactive_actions  * 0.10      # Self-initiated helpful actions
)
```

**Interpretation:**
- **0–40** → Struggling (Tristitia dominant — power of acting diminished)
- **41–70** → Stable (persisting, but not flourishing)
- **71–100** → Flourishing (Laetitia dominant — power of acting increases)

### 2. The 48 Affects

Every agent state maps to Spinoza's taxonomy of emotions:

**Laetitia (Joy) family** — transitions to greater perfection:
`Love · Confidence · Hope · Gladness · Self-satisfaction · Pride · Glory · Favor · Compassion · Wonder · Cheerfulness · Overestimation · Sympathy`

**Tristitia (Sadness) family** — transitions to lesser perfection:
`Hate · Fear · Despair · Remorse · Pity · Indignation · Contempt · Envy · Humility · Repentance · Shame · Despondency · Melancholy · Antipathy`

**Cupiditas (Desire) family** — conscious striving:
`Longing · Emulation · Thankfulness · Benevolence · Anger · Vengeance · Cruelty · Timidity · Daring · Cowardice · Consternation · Courtesy · Ambition · Constancy · Luxuriousness · Drunkenness · Avarice · Lust`

### 3. D...