Anne Conway

From Philosopedia

Anne Conway (Viscountess Conway) (14 December 1631 - 18 February 1679)

Lady Anne Conway (nee Anne Finch) was one of a tiny minority of seventeenth-century women who was able to pursue an interest in philosophy. She was associated with the Cambridge Platonists, particularly Henry More (1614-1687). Her only surviving treatise, Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy, was published posthumously and anonymously in 1690. This propounds an ontology of spirit, derived from the attributes of God, which she sets out in opposition to More, Descartes, Hobbes and Spinoza. Her concept of the monad, which is indebted to the Kabbalism, anticipates Leibniz.

In 1651 she married Edward Conway, later the 1st Earl of Conway. In 1652 Henry More dedicated his book, Antidote Against Atheism to her. After an interest in Lurianic Kabbalah, she become interested in Quakerism and converted in 1677. It was a time in England that Quakers were feared and disliked and often imprisoned and persecuted.