Anne Conway as a Priority Monist: A Reply to Gordon-Roth

Thomas, Emily

Abstract

For early modern metaphysician Anne Conway, the world comprises creatures. In some sense, Conway is a monist about creatures: all creatures are one. Yet, as Jessica Gordon-Roth (2018) has astutely pointed out, that monism can be understood in very different ways. One might read Conway as an ‘existence pluralist’: creatures are all composed of the same type of substance, but many substances exist. Alternatively, one might read Conway as an ‘existence monist’: there is only one created substance. Gordon-Roth has done the scholarship a great favor by illuminating these issues in Conway. However, this article takes issue with Gordon-Roth's further view that Conway ‘oscillates’ between the extremes of existence pluralism and monism. In its place, I argue we should read Conway as a priority monist: the whole of creation is ontologically prior to its parts.

Citation

Thomas, E. (2020). Anne Conway as a Priority Monist: A Reply to Gordon-Roth. Journal of the American Philosophical Association, 6(3), 275-284. https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2019.1

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 4, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jan 20, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 4, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 1, 2019
• Journal: Journal of the American Philosophical Association
• Print ISSN: 2053-4477
• Electronic ISSN: 2053-4485
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 275-284
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/apa.2019.1
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1310895