Contrast Descrates and Conway Principles of Philosophy. Using quotes from the documents, effectively answer the essay question
Essay Question: Contrast Descrates’s and Conway’s Principles of Philosophy (focus on Descartes’s idea of cartesian dualism and Conway’s idea of monism)
Using quotes from the documents, effectively answer the essay question above. Descartes focuses on the concept of the two substances mind and body and Conway focuses on the concept of spirit.
Anne Conway
Anne Conway is known to be the author of a single treatise of philosophy. This was written at the end of her life and published anonymously in Amsterdam in 1690 in a Latin translation with the title, Principia Philosophiae antiquissimae et recentissimae. It was translated back into English and printed in London in 1692 as The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy. The other source for her philosophical activities is her correspondence with Henry More.
Anne Conway’s treatise is a work of Platonist metaphysics in which she derives her system of philosophy from the existence and attributes of God. The framework of Conway’s system is a tripartite ontological hierarchy of “species”, the highest of which is God, the source of all being. Christ, or “middle nature”, links God and the third species, called “Creature”. God as the most perfect being is infinitely good, wise, and just.
A principle of likeness links God and creation. Since God is good and just, his creation to is good and just. Created substance, like God, consists of spirit, but, unlike God, is constituted of infinite multiples of spirit particles, which, as unities in multiplicity, may be described as monadic (though not in a Leibnizian sense). All created substance is living, capable of motion and perception.
Descartes
Rene Descartes was born on March 31, 1596, in La Haye en Touraine, Kingdom of France and died in Stockholm, Swedish Empire on February 11, 1650. He was 55 years old when he died. He was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. For instance, Descartes was a native of the Kingdom of France. He spent his life in the Dutch Republic, after serving in the Dutch States of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and the Stadholder of Union Providences. He is considered one of the noblest intellectual figures of the Dutch Golden Age.
Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy (1614) continues to be a standard book at several philosophy departments. Descartes’ influences are contributed to mathematics. The Cartesian coordinate system was named after him. For example, he is known for being the father of analytic geometry, which is the bridge between algebra and geometry. Analytic geometry was used in the finding of calculus and analysis. Furthermore, Descartes was known as one of the key figures of the scientific revolution.
Descartes rejected to accept the authority of his previous philosophers. He set his own views apart from those predecessors. In the section of the Passions of the Soul, he focused on a modern treatise on emotions. Descartes goes as far to declare that he will write on this topic about passions. He believed that nobody had written on these topics before. He is best known for the philosophical “Cognito, ergo sum,” or in English, “I think, therefore I am.” This statement is found in the Discourse of Method (1637) and Principles of Philosophy.