Anne Conway: A Woman PhilosopherThis 2004 book was the first intellectual biography of one of the very first English women philosophers. At a time when very few women received more than basic education, Lady Anne Conway wrote an original treatise of philosophy, her Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy, which challenged the major philosophers of her day - Descartes, Hobbes and Spinoza. Sarah Hutton's study places Anne Conway in her historical and philosophical context, by reconstructing her social and intellectual milieu. She traces her intellectual development in relation to friends and associates such as Henry More, Sir John Finch, F. M. van Helmont, Robert Boyle and George Keith. And she documents Conway's debt to Cambridge Platonism and her interest in religion - an interest which extended beyond Christian orthodoxy to Quakerism, Judaism and Islam. Her book offers an insight into both the personal life of a very private woman, and the richness of seventeenth-century intellectual culture. |
Contents
| 1 | |
CHAPTER 1 Anne Finch Viscountess Conway | 14 |
CHAPTER 2 A philosophical education | 36 |
CHAPTER 3 Religion and Anne Conway | 53 |
CHAPTER 4 Anne Conway and Henry More | 73 |
CHAPTER 5 John Finch Thomas Hobbes and Margaret Cavendish | 94 |
Boyle Greatrakes Stubbe | 116 |
Van Helmont father and son | 140 |
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Common terms and phrases
ancient Anne Conway argues arguments attributes Baines Boyle’s brother cabbalistica Cambridge Platonists Cartesianism chapter Christian Conway Letters Conway to Sir Conway’s Conway’s Principles correspondence Coudert created things creatures critique Cudworth Descartes dialogue discussion divine doctrine dualism England English example explain Francis Mercury George Keith God’s Hastings MSS Helmontian Heneage Henry Hobbes Hundred Queries husband Hutton Ibid idea intellectual interest interpretation Ireland Jews John Finch Kabbala denudata kabbalah kabbalism kabbalistic Knorr von Rosenroth Lady Conway Latin Leibniz Library London Lord Conway Margaret Cavendish matter mediator Mercury van Helmont metaphysical Middle Nature modern More’s motion natural philosophy Origen Penn Philo Platonism Principia philosophiae published Quaker Ragley Hall religion religious Robert Boyle Royal Society seventeenth-century Sir George Rawdon sister Spinoza Spirit of Nature Stubbe substance theology theory Thomas translation transmigration treatise University Press Valentine Greatrakes Viscount Conway vital congruity women writings