SOSS Seminar | A Living, Spiritual Cosmos: Anne Conway’s Challenge to Anthropocentrism
Anne Conway (nee Anne Finch, 1631-1679) holds that everything, from stones to humans, is essentially alive and spiritual. Unlike contemporaries such as Descartes and Hobbes, Conway rejects the idea of inert, passive matter and denies any substantial gaps between thinking beings and other earthly creatures. Differences among creatures lie in degrees of spirituality, which entail sensitivity, activity and the capacity for ontological and moral transformation. This framework implies a non-anthropocentric view: all creatures possess intrinsic value simply because they are spiritual in themselves, even if human cognition cannot always detect or understand their activity or sensitivity. Since humans and other earthly beings fundamentally emerge from the same substance, nature is best conceived as an interconnected whole. By recovering Conway’s conception of spirituality, we gain a valuable resource for addressing contemporary debates in environmental ethics. Her view not only destabilizes rigid human–nature hierarc…
Speaker Details: Speaker
, Yining Wu
Ph.D Candidate
Temple University
Yining Wu (Ph.D. Temple University) specializes in the history of philosophy, with a focus on early modern philosophy and German idealism. Her dissertation investigates Anne Conway’s metaphysics and explores the legacy of early modern female philosophers. She is also interested in environmental ethics and philosophy of art.
MODERATOR, , Matthew Hammerton
Associate Professor of Philosophy, SMU
Matthew Hammerton is Associate Professor of… RSVP: . Reserve a seat: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=ynmKyZpakUeiQ_Bq_WdGTUGH9G9u-WtAl9UVUOJ8iDJUNlREUVY3UEpJSEJPQVVPMTNZSEJVWVQzTi4u&route=shorturl. Type: Seminars & Workshops. Subject: Social Sciences & Humanities. Audience: Public.
Monday, September 1, 2025, 3:45 PM – 5:15 PM.
SMU Yong Pung How School of Law
Seminar Room 2-02, Level 2
55 Armenian St, Singapore 179943.
For more info visit forms.office.com.