Editing Anne Conway (philosopher) (section)

=== ''The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy'' ===
In ''The Principles'', written around 1677, Conway develops a unique theory of substance monism and vitalism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Project Vox |title=Conway (1631-1679) |url=https://projectvox.org/conway-1631-1679/ |access-date=2025-02-28 |website=Project Vox |language=en}}</ref> In contrast with the [[Cartesianism|Cartesian]] idea that bodies consist of dead matter, Conway argues that all matter has vitality and self-knowledge. She also repudiates [[Mind–body dualism|dualist]] theories of the [[Mind–body problem|relationship between the body and spirit]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Broad |first1=Jacqueline |title=Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century, pg. 66–67 |date=13 August 2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521039178}}</ref>, claiming instead that the world consists of only one substance. A notable element of her philosophy is her emphasis on the relationship between three levels of being, which she defines as God, Christ, and "Creatures" (all life on Earth).<ref>{{Citation |last=Hutton |first=Sarah |title=Lady Anne Conway |date=2021 |work=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2021/entries/conway/ |access-date=2025-02-28 |edition=Spring 2021 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University}}</ref> She distinguishes between these levels of being through their capacity for change, or perfectibility. Within the category of "Creatures," Conway proposes that all life is interconnected because it essentially consists of the same substance.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Project Vox |title=Conway (1631-1679) |url=https://projectvox.org/conway-1631-1679/ |access-date=2025-02-28 |website=Project Vox |language=en}}</ref> 

''The Principles'' was originally published in English and translated into Latin as ''Principia philosophiae antiquissimae et recentissimae'' in 1690. The English original was lost, but an English retranslation of the Latin appeared in 1692.<ref name="Derksen">{{cite web|last1=Derksen|first1=Louise D.|title=20th WCP: Anne Conway's Critique of Cartesian Dualism|url=http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Onto/OntoDerk.htm|website=www.bu.edu|access-date=20 January 2018}}</ref>