Anne Conway 1631 – 1679

Anne Conway was an English philosopher and one of the most original metaphysicians of the seventeenth century. Largely confined to her family estate by chronic and debilitating illness, she conducted an extensive correspondence with Henry More and Francis Mercury van Helmont and converted late in life to Quakerism. Her single treatise, the Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy, published posthumously in Latin, defends a monistic vitalism in which spirit and body differ only in degree and every creature is capable of infinite improvement. The work influenced Leibniz, who praised her by name.