Main Research Project: Anne Conway's Platonism
Anne Conway is a 17th century British philosopher, whose work the Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy was gathered from her personal notebook, edited, and published posthumously by her friends Francis Mercury van Helmont and Platonist, Henry More. Though Conway is Platonist, I will argue that she challenges a Platonist distinction between the intelligible, eternal realm and a sensible, changeable realm of existence in space and time. Also, Conway rejects a Platonist account of matter in terms of evil and privation or lack, and further, allows that spirit can change into body, contrary to a typical Platonism that has it that spiritual and material existence are mutually exclusive. I will show that to derive these surprising results, she assumes a Platonist emanation account of causation, where creation is an overflowing of perfection from a higher source, which diminishes as it is more removed from its origin.
"The Grounds of Moral Equality in Im Yunjidang and Anne Conway" with Hwa Yeong Wang
Im Yunjidang argued for the moral equality of women in 18th century Korea. In 17th century England, Anne Conway defended a radical egalitarian picture according to which everything can achieve a level of virtue sufficient for salvation. Though their contexts and aims are different, both present explicit grounds for moral equality deriving from the essence of living things. This comparative work will also highlight, however, their differences on the grounds that lead one to sagehood, in one case, and universal salvation, on the other. For Yunjidang, what matters is the process of becoming a sage and perseverance and hard work that enables one to more closely approach sagehood. Conway, by contrast, has an outcome-oriented picture of the processes of moral development: every life process will culminate in a level of virtue sufficient for salvation. Overall, this comparative study aims to clarify and distinguish distinctive elements of their approaches to moral equality and identify common concerns that unite their inquiry.