Editing Anne Conway (philosopher)

{{Short description|English philosopher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| name        = Anne Conway
| image       = Samuel van Hoogstraten - Perspective View with a Woman Reading a Letter - 66 - Mauritshuis.jpg
| caption     = ''Perspective View with a Woman Reading a Letter'' by [[Samuel van Hoogstraten]].  This painting is often thought to depict Anne Conway, though that attribution has been disputed.<ref name="PV">{{Cite web |title=Conway (1631-1679) |url=https://projectvox.org/conway-1631-1679/ |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=Project Vox |language=en}}</ref>
| birth_name  = Anne Finch
| birth_date  = {{birth date|df=yes|1631|12|14}}
| birth_place = [[London]], England
| death_date  = {{death date and age|df=yes|1679|2|23|1631|12|14}}
| death_place = [[Ragley Hall]], [[Warwickshire]], England
| resting_place = [[Holy Trinity Church, Arrow|Holy Trinity Church]], [[Arrow, Warwickshire]]<ref name="PV" />
| parents     = [[Heneage Finch (Speaker)|Sir Heneage Finch]]<br>Elizabeth Cradock 
| spouse      = {{marriage|[[Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway]]|1651||reason=}}
| children    = Heneage Edward Conway
| relations   = [[John Finch (Ambassador)|John Finch]] (brother)
| signature   = 
|era={{plainlist|
* [[17th century in philosophy|17th Century]]
* [[Age of Enlightenment]]
}}|region={{tree list}}
* [[Western philosophy]]
** [[British philosophy]]
{{tree list/end}}|main_interests=[[Metaphysics]], [[Monism]]|occupation=Philosopher}}
'''Anne Conway''' (also known as '''Viscountess Conway'''; ''[[Married and maiden names|née]]'' '''Finch'''; 14 December 1631 – 23 February 1679<ref>{{Cite book|title=Anne Conway : a woman philosopher|last=Hutton|first=Sarah|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521109819|location=Cambridge, UK|page=215|chapter=Death|oclc=909355784|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TxjF4RJMWCMC&pg=PA215}}</ref>) was an English [[philosopher]] of the seventeenth century, whose work was in the tradition of the [[Cambridge Platonists]]. Conway's thought is a deeply original form of [[rationalist]] philosophy. Conway rejected Cartesian [[substance dualism]] and instead, argued that nature is constituted by one substance. Against the mechanists, she argued that matter is not passive, but has self-motion, perception, and life.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Project Vox |title=Conway (1631-1679) |url=https://projectvox.org/conway-1631-1679/ |access-date=2024-11-22 |website=Project Vox |language=en}}</ref>

==Life==
Anne Finch was born to [[Heneage Finch (Speaker)|Sir Heneage Finch]] (who had held the posts of the [[Recorder of London]] and [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]] under [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]) and his second wife, Elizabeth (daughter of William Cradock of Staffordshire).  Her father died the week before her birth. She was the youngest child.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Hutton |first=Sarah |date=March 2021 |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |title=Lady Anne Conway |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conway/ |edition=Spring 2021}}</ref> Anne grew up in the house now known as [[Kensington Palace]], which her family owned at the time.<ref name=":0" /> In her younger years, she was educated by tutors. She studied [[Latin]], and later learned [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]. Her half-brother, [[John Finch (Ambassador)|John Finch]], encouraged her interests in [[philosophy]] and [[theology]]. He introduced Anne to one of his tutors at [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], the Platonist [[Henry More]]. This led to a lifelong correspondence and close friendship between Henry and Anne. In their correspondence, the pair discussed [[René Descartes]]' philosophy. Eventually, Anne grew from More's informal pupil to his [[intellectual]] equal. When speaking about her, More said that he had "scarce ever met with any Person, Man or Woman, of better Natural parts than Lady Conway" (quoted in Richard Ward's ''The Life of Henry More'' (1710) p.&nbsp;193), and that "in the knowledge of things as well Natural and Divine, you have not only out-gone all of your own Sex, but even of that other also."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Women philosophers of the seventeenth century |last=Broad |first=Jacqueline |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-511-04237-X |location=Cambridge, U.K. |page=67|oclc=56208440}} </ref>

In 1651, she married [[Edward Conway, 1st Earl of Conway|Edward Conway]], later 1st [[Earl of Conway]]. Her husband was also interested in philosophy and had been tutored by More. Anne and Edward established their place of residence at Anne's home at Kensington Palace. In the year following her marriage, More dedicated his book ''Antidote against Atheism'' to Anne. In 1658, she gave birth to her only child, Heneage Edward Conway, who died of [[smallpox]] just two years later.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hutton|first=Sarah|title=Anne Conway : A Woman Philosopher|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2004|isbn=9780521835473|pages=32|oclc=76904888}}</ref> Anne also contracted the illness, but managed to survive the disease.<ref name="projectvox.org">Project Vox team. (2019). “Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway and Killultagh.” Project Vox. Duke University Libraries. https://projectvox.org/conway-1631-1679/</ref>

Anne Conway contacted [[Elizabeth Foxcroft]] likely through More, and when Foxcroft's husband went to India in 1666, she moved in with Conway and became her companion and [[amanuensis]]. They shared similar interests and Foxcroft lived at Ragley Hall until 1672.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/53695 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |access-date=2023-08-21 |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/53695 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref> Conway became interested in the [[Isaac Luria|Lurianic Kabbalah]], and then in [[Religious Society of Friends|Quakerism]]. She exchanged letters with important Quaker leaders and met several of them in person. In England at that time, Quakers were generally disliked and feared, and suffered persecution and even imprisonment. Some scholars cite the parallels that she identified between Quaker beliefs and the Kabbalah as an influential factor in Conway's conversion to Quakerism.<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> 

Conway's life was marked by the recurrence of severe [[migraine]]s from the age of twelve, when she suffered a period of fever. This meant that she was often incapacitated by pain, and she spent much time under medical supervision and searching for a cure, at one point even having her [[jugular vein]]s opened. The extreme pain she experienced led her to pursue her philosophical studies from the comfort of her own home, and some scholars cite Conway's identification of her physical suffering with the hardships faced by Quakers as another reason for her conversion to Quakerism.<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> She received medical advice from Dr. [[Thomas Willis]] and many others.<ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=Carol Wayne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L69JvQEACAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions |title=The Legacy of Anne Conway (1631-1679): Reverberations from a Mystical Naturalism |date=2008-05-29 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-7465-5 |pages=6 |language=en}}</ref>  The Conways also consulted the Swiss royal physician of the time, [[Theodore Turquet de Mayerne]], and the natural philosopher [[Robert Boyle]].<ref name="projectvox.org"/> Additionally, Conway consulted [[William Harvey]], who was a physician and researcher of how blood circulated in the human body. Some scholars believe that in 1665, John Finch attempted to cure his sister by operating on her head. In 1666, the Conways famously persuaded [[Valentine Greatrakes]], a renounced Irish healer, to attempt to cure her.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Team |first=Project Vox |title=Conway (1631-1679) |url=https://projectvox.org/conway-1631-1679/ |access-date=2025-02-12 |website=Project Vox |language=en}}</ref> Even though Conway was famously treated by many of the great physicians of her time, none of the treatments proved to be successful.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Owen |first=Gilbert Roy |date=1937 |title=The Famous Case of Lady Anne Conway |journal=Annals of Medical History|volume=9 |issue=6 |pages=567–571 |pmid=33943893 |pmc=7942846 }}{{page needed|date=December 2019}}</ref> She died in 1679 at the age of forty-seven.

== Philosophical Work ==

=== ''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>

== Correspondence ==
Throughout her life, Conway exchanged numerous letters with [[Henry More]], [[Francis Mercury van Helmont]], and other major thinkers of her time. In these letters, she discussed numerous philosophical and theological concepts and occasionally wrote about personal matters, like the death of her son.

Conway also wrote around a dozen letters to her father-in-law, [[Lord Conway]], and received around a dozen letters from her brother, [[John Finch (ambassador)|John Finch]].<ref name="projectvox.org"/> These correspondences concerned philosophy, social issues, and their personal lives. In 1930, [[Marjorie Hope Nicolson]] published Conway's correspondence along with bibliographical details about her.<ref>G. C. Moore Smith. The Review of English Studies 7, no. 27 (1931): 349–56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/507935.</ref> In 1992, Sarah Hutton published a revised, augmented edition of Nicolson's ''Conway Letters''.<ref name="projectvox.org"/> Nicolson's version focuses primarily on Conway's relationships with friends and family, including an analysis of her relationship with Henry More.<ref>Duran, Jane. “ANNE CONWAY.” In Eight Women Philosophers: Theory, Politics, and Feminism, 49–76. University of Illinois Press, 2006. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctt1xcn4h.7.</ref>

== Historical Impact ==
Conway's work was an influence on [[Gottfried Leibniz]], and [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]] called her "England's greatest female philosopher."<ref>Trevor-Roper, Hugh. ''One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper'', Oxford 2014, 73</ref><ref>Israel, Jonathan I. ''Spinoza, Life and Legacy''. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2023, 1127-28</ref>

== Bibliography ==
*[http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/conway/principles/principles.html ''The principles of the most ancient and modern philosophy''] (London: n. publ., 1692) 168 pp. in 12°. – originally printed in Latin: ''Principia philosophiae antiquissimae et recentissimae de Deo, Christo & Creatura'', Amsterdam: M. Brown 1690.
*''Letters. The Correspondence of Anne, Viscountess Conway, Henry More and their friends, 1642–1684'', ed. M. H. Nicolson (London 1930) 517 pp.
*''The Correspondence of Anne, Viscountess Conway, Henry More and their friends, 1642–1684'', Rev. ed. S. Hutton (Oxford 1992).
* Collaborations with [[Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont]] (1614–1698) 
**''A Cabbalistical Dialogue'' (1682) (in [[Christian Knorr von Rosenroth]], ''Kabbala denudata'', 1677–1684)
**''Two Hundred Quiries moderately propounded concerning the Doctrine of the Revolution of Humane Souls'' (1684).

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Broad, Jacqueline. ''Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth Century''. Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2002.
* Brown, Stuart. "Leibniz and Henry More’s Cabbalistic Circle", in S. Hutton (ed.) ''Henry More (1614–1687): Tercentenary Studies'', Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990.(Challenges the view that Conway influenced Leibniz.)
* Duran, Jane. "Anne Viscountess Conway: a Seventeenth-Century Rationalist". ''Hypatia: a Journal of Feminist Philosophy''. 4 (1989): 64–79.
* Frankel, Lois. "Anne Finch, Viscountess Conway,"  Mary Ellen Waithe, ed., ''A History of Women Philosophers'', Vol. 3, Kluwer, 1991, pp.&nbsp;41–58.
* [[Gabbey, Alan]]. "Anne Conway et Henry More: lettres sur Descartes" (''Archives de Philosophie'' 40, pp.&nbsp;379–404)
* {{cite book | author=Head, Jonathan | title=The Philosophy of Anne Conway: God, Creation and the Nature of Time | publisher=Bloomsbury | location=London | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-350-13452-2 }}
* Hutton, Sarah. "[https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/conway-anne-c-1630-79/v-1 Conway, Anne (c.1630–79)]", 1998, doi:10.4324/9780415249126-DA021-1. ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Taylor and Francis, .
* Hutton, Sarah, "[http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/conway/ Lady Anne Conway]", ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
* Hutton, Sarah. ''Anne Conway, a Woman Philosopher''. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
* {{DSB |first=Sarah |last=Hutton |title= Conway, Anne |volume=20 |pages= 171–172}}
* King, Peter J. ''One Hundred Philosophers'' (New York: Barron's, 2004) {{ISBN|0-7641-2791-8}}
* Lascano, Marcy P. "Anne Conway: Bodies in the Spiritual World"; ''Philosophy Compass'' 8.4 (2013):327-336.
* [[Carolyn Merchant|Merchant, Carolyn]], "The Vitalism of Anne Conway: its Impact on Leibniz's Concept of the Monad" (''Journal of the History of Philosophy'' 17, 1979, pp.&nbsp;255–269) (Argues that Conway influenced Leibniz by showing parallels between [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz|Leibniz]] and Conway.)
* Mercer, Christia. "Platonism in Early Modern Natural Philosophy: The Case of Leibniz and Conway", in ''Neoplatonism and the Philosophy of Nature'', James Wilberding and Christoph Horn, ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, 103–26.
* {{BBKL|c/conway_a_f|band=23|first=Claus |last=Bernet|spalten=232–239}}
* White,Carol Wayne. ''The Legacy of Anne Conway (1631–1679): Reverberations from a Mystical Naturalism'' (State University of New York Press, 2009)

==External links==
* {{wikiquote-inline|Anne Conway}}
* [http://projectvox.org/conway-1631-1679/ Conway (1631–1679) – Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway and Killultagh] encyclopedic article at ''Project Vox''.
* {{cite SEP |url-id=conway |title=Lady Anne Conway |last=Hutton |first=Sarah}}
* {{OL author|223796A}}
* [http://www.earlymoderntexts.com Contains "The principles of the most ancient and modern philosophy", slightly modified for easier reading]
* [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/conway/principles/principles.html ''The principles of the most ancient and modern philosophy''] by Anne Conway (London: n. publ., 1692) at [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/ A Celebration of Women Writers]
* [http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc0337/authors/anne.conway.html Peter King's page]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20020803193055/http://www.orst.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/conway.html William Uzgalis' page]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190201014448/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-american-philosophical-association/article/what-kind-of-monist-is-anne-finch-conway/BB718F2075353B0FAC85B489F5DFBFDB/core-reader What Kind of Monist is Anne Finch Conway?] Jessica Gordon-Roth, ''Journal of the American Philosophical Association'', Volume 4, Issue, Fall 2018, pp.&nbsp;280–297

{{Platonists}}
{{Quakers}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Conway, Anne Conway, Viscountess}}
[[Category:1631 births|Conway, Lady Anne Finch]]
[[Category:1679 deaths|Conway, Lady Anne Finch]]
[[Category:17th-century English philosophers]]
[[Category:17th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:17th-century English writers]]
[[Category:Cambridge Platonists]]
[[Category:Converts to Quakerism]]
[[Category:English essayists]]
[[Category:English Anglicans|Conway, Anne Finch]]
[[Category:English Quakers|Conway, Anne Finch]]
[[Category:Quaker philosophers]]
[[Category:Christian Kabbalists]]
[[Category:Anglican writers]]
[[Category:Quaker writers]]
[[Category:Irish viscountesses|Killultagh]]
[[Category:English viscountesses]]
[[Category:English women non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:English women philosophers|Conway, Lady Anne Finch]]
[[Category:Enlightenment philosophers]]
[[Category:Finch-Hatton family|Anne]]
[[Category:Philosophers of mind]]
[[Category:English philosophers of religion]]
[[Category:Rationalists]]