The English philosopher Anne Conway influenced the work of Gottfried Leibniz, a German philosopher and mathematician. Though Leibniz went to his grave maintaining that he had beaten his rival Isaac Newton in the race to discover calculus, he freely acknowledged Conway’s influence, publicly praising her brilliance and commenting how closely his views approached her own.
Taking advantage of a wealthy but largely absent husband, Conway converted her remote country mansion into an intellectual powerhouse that attracted some of Britain’s most eminent thinkers. A few turned into semi-permanent house guests, enjoying not only her generous hospitality but also the opportunity to thrash out ideas on the latest scientific topics. Her lifelong confidant (and possibly lover) was the Cambridge philosopher Henry More, and he dedicated a treatise to this female genius who had “not onely outgone all of your own Sexe, but even of that other also.”
A lifelong sufferer from crippling headaches, Conway was cared for by the Oxford brain specialist Thomas Willis, who incorporated her symptoms into his pioneering neurological study. Chronic pain was Conway’s daily nightmare, but also her philosophical inspiration. According to the prevailing Cartesian view, mind and matter operated separately. Yet body and spirit must be one, she argued: if not, why did she feel so miserable when afflicted with a physical problem? Patricia Fara
