Anne Conway (philosopher)

Anne Conway
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.[1]
Born
Anne Finch

(1631-12-14)14 December 1631
London, England
Died23 February 1679(1679-02-23) (aged 47)
Resting placeHoly Trinity Church, Arrow, Warwickshire[1]
OccupationPhilosopher
Spouse
(after 1651)
ChildrenHeneage Edward Conway
Parent(s)Sir Heneage Finch
Elizabeth Cradock
RelativesJohn Finch (brother)

Anne Conway (also known as Viscountess Conway; née Finch; 14 December 1631 – 23 February 1679[2]) was an English philosopher of the Enlightenment, whose work was in the tradition of the Cambridge Platonists. Conway's thought is a deeply original form of rationalist philosophy, with hallmarks of gynocentric concerns and patterns that lead some to think of it as unique among seventeenth-century systems.[3] Conways work was an influence on Gottfried Leibniz, and Hugh Trevor-Roper called her "England's greatest female philosopher."[4][5]

  1. ^ a b "Conway (1631-1679)". Project Vox. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  2. ^ Hutton, Sarah (2009). "Death". Anne Conway : a woman philosopher. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 215. ISBN 9780521109819. OCLC 909355784.
  3. ^ Jane Duran (2006). Eight Women Philosophers: Theory, Politics, And Feminism. University of Illinois Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-252-03022-2.
  4. ^ Trevor-Roper, Hugh. One Hundred Letters from Hugh Trevor-Roper, Oxford 2014, 73
  5. ^ Israel, Jonathan I. Spinoza, Life and Legacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2023, 1127-28