Written by Nathan Franco, Class of 2028
On Thursday, March 6, 2025, DKU faculty, staff, and students gathered for an interesting discussion on the political theorist Anne Conway, titled “Anne Conway: What Does It Mean to Be Spiritual?” by Yining Wu, a Ph.D. candidate at Temple University specializing in early modern philosophy. Present during the discussion were many upperclass students and DKU professors eager to learn more about Conway’s thought.
The discussion began with a brief introduction to Anne Conway (1631-1679). Before taking the last name Conway, her maiden name was Finch. As a noblewoman, one would assume Conway lived a life of luxury, but in contrast, Conway suffered from lifelong headaches, making pain and suffering a big theme in her work. Speaking of her work, Conway’s papers were first published in a Latin translation in 1690, followed by an English translation by Dr. Clark. Much of Conway’s work was also influenced by Thomas Hobbes, Rene Descartes, Henry More, and F.M. van Helmont.
In her presentation, Yining Wu highlighted three puzzles (which are answered at the end) and three topics that are major themes in Conway’s works.
Conway’s Principles:
God – the creator of all creatures and Middle Nature. God doesn’t directly interact with creatures. God is beyond time and space. God is a pure spirit.
Middle Nature (Jesus) – serves as the mediator between God and creatures.
Creatures – lowest beings; mutable (either move in the direction of goodness or evilness); the world of creation is one substance, being corporeal and spiritual at the same time. Creatures exist in time and space. Creatures are not a part of God, as God is indivisible.
The God referenced above has no connection to any religion but is the general, philosophical God. Creatures refer to humankind, and the Middle Nature is Jesus, as Conway commonly refers to it.
Conway’s Puzzles:
What are the differences between fallen spirits and God the Spirit if the former is still called “spirit” after all?
How is it possible that the substance of the created world is spiritual and corporeal at the same time, given that corporeality is in opposition to God the Spirit?
What does it mean when Conway uses certain adjectives to refer to spirit (e.g., light, subtle, thin, etc.)?
After laying the foundation of her discussion, Wu began to discuss Spirit, Life, Sensitivity, and Activity in Conway’s work.
Spirit simply means having life or certain life functions. In Conway’s work, “life” is the basic explanatory unit in the cosmos. Wu argues that life is a more fundamental feature, of which sensitivity and activity are signs and expressions in Conway.
When God communicates His attributes to creatures, the attribute of life always comes first, followed by the attributes of senses and intelligence (or other mental-related functions). The aspect of sensitivity within the spirituality of the created world directly corresponds to Godly spirituality, while the aspect of activity is not straightforwardly shown in God the Spirit.
“Since life is the default setting for every created being, I contend that the attribute of life at least assumes a minimal degree of spirituality in a creature or a minimal similarity to God the Spirit.” – Yining Wu
Life and Spirit tend to be the easier concepts to understand in Conway’s work, while Sensitivity and Activity take a little more brain power to fully comprehend in Conway’s cosmos. Sensitivity is used to represent the signs of Life; for example, a common reflection of life is stones.
Stones and metals are perceptive, intelligent, and capable of love, even if this is not self-evident to human eyes. A stone can further improve itself, developing thoughts of its own and loving other creatures if its inner spiritual parts continue to wear and divide, allowing the spiritual parts to participate more in exchanges with other creatures. Similarly, the activity of creaturely spirits flowing in and out implies changes to their status or condition of life, including the “death” of one individual and the generation of a new one. This means there is no real death because no body parts or spirits can truly die. If people “die” or go into a coma, they become like a stone. Or, when people “die” and are left out in nature, animals will eat the body, and the soil will use the bones and other parts for nutrients. In this way, the creature has just taken a new form.
Before ending the discussion, Wu answered Conway’s puzzles:
“Why are the fallen spirits in the created world still called ‘spirit’ after all?”
The spirits of creatures, while entailing corporeality due to the Fall of the divine spirit, are still the products of God’s creation and inherit certain attributes from God.
“How is it possible that the substance of the created world is spiritual and corporeal at the same time, given that corporeality is in opposition to God the Spirit?”
The connotations of creaturely spirituality mainly refer to the sensitivity and activity of creatures. The aspect of activity implies the necessary existence of corporeality in the created world.
“What does it mean when Conway uses certain adjectives to refer to spirit (e.g., light, subtle, thin, etc.)?”
The spiritual parts of a creature are more fine-grained in the physical dimension, lighter in weight, and more capable of moving freely.
Q&A Session
Finally, the audience asked some insightful questions during the Q&A session.
Q: Is the “God” connected to a religion?
A: In this research, God is the philosophical God or the general God.
Q: How does God affect creatures?
A: Imagine if I draw myself on the whiteboard, but instead of physically writing it myself, I use my mind to wave at an AI robot to draw me on the whiteboard. In this case, I am not actually making physical contact with the robot, whiteboard, or marker.
Q: How does Conway justify that stones have sensitivity?
A: This is justified by the belief that everything has a soul. Conway believes that a stone can be broken down and made into something more advanced in the hierarchy of creation. And if it can be made into something more advanced, then it has a soul and hence sensitivity.
Overall, the event was an eye-opener into Conway’s mind and a great way to study women in philosophy.
Embark on a captivating journey into the depths of philosophy with Yining Wu’s upcoming lecture, “Anne Conway: What Does It Mean to Be Spiritual?”
Join the DKU Film Society for a carefully curated series of screenings showcasing some of the most acclaimed films from renowned directors across different eras and genres. This semester’s lineup highlights a diverse selection of cinematic masterpieces that have left a lasting impact on the world of film.
On February 21, the Language and Culture Center (LCC) at Duke Kunshan University successfully hosted its inaugural conference “Think Globally, Act Locally: How We Engage Language and Culture”. The event attracted approximately 120 scholars, educators, and language teaching professionals from prestige institutions, including New York University Shanghai, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Wenzhou-Kean University, The Ohio State University, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Southeast University, City University of Hong Kong, and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Gathering in the Academic Building at Duke Kunshan University, participants engaged in a series of insightful lectures and in-depth discussions, collaboratively exploring innovative approaches and practical strategies in language education and intercultural communication.
Our conversation expanded beyond historical analysis to address the multifaceted forms of pain experienced by women, past and present. Topics ranged from menstrual pain and its associated social stigma to the systematic exclusion of women from intellectual spaces. Participants drew parallels between historical silences and modern struggles for visibility and voice, prompting a deeper reflection on the enduring impact of pain—whether physical, social, or intellectual—on women’s lives.
