Anne Conway and the Hierarchy of Species
Anne Conway’s main theory in philosophy comes from “The Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy,” her most influential medium of work. In this essay, she proposes and argues an ontological theory (a branch of metaphysics focused on the nature of being). This theory is a tripartite hierarchy of species where each species holds specific properties of essence and ontological limits. The highest ‘class’ of species is God. God is defined as “a Spirit, Light, and Life, infinitely Wise, Good, Just, Mighty, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Creator and Maker of all things visible and invisible” (Conway Principles I.1). God is a singular being seen as the source of all life and other beings. Below the ‘caste’ of God, there is the “middle nature,” also known as the link between God and the third ‘class.’ Due to Conway’s Christain influence, the middle nature is most commonly viewed as or indicated by Jesus Christ. The main concept of Middle nature acts as the connection that God can communicate and act through. Middle nature not only acts as a connection but also as a barrier from ‘Creatures’ to God. What differentiates Middle nature from the other classes of species is that it contains immutability like God’s but does not contain the main attributes of God such as being infinite, omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent. Lastly, Conway presents the remainder of the all species as “Creatures.” “Creatures” are described by Conway as “just but one substance or entity,” exhibiting “a general unity of creatures with one another” (Conway Principles VII.4). Unlike God, Creatures are multiple and are subject to time.
In Conway’s hierarchy of species, the idea of substance is highly important. Each sector of the hierarchy is made up of species that contain ‘substances.’ Every substance is differentiated by its properties (essence and ontological boundaries). The three types of species cannot change in substance from one to another, although they are all connected through similar properties. All substances share some resemblance to God. Conway also specifies that all substances from God’s creation must be alive. Everything that is not God was created by God. Thus meaning that everything is either God itself or created by God. If God creates everything, and everything God creates is alive, then, in some capacity, everything in existence is alive. The main difference between God and all other substances is the attributes created by God that are not shared, such as shape, solidity, and ability to change.
Thomas Hobbes and Baruch de Spinoza argue the idea that reality is identical to divinity. This theory is called material pantheism. According to Spinoza, there is only nature and nature’s modes and attributes. God is identical to everything that exists. Conway strongly disagrees with this theory as it has many flaws in regards to the functioning or reality and human beings. Conways instead argues that God or the divine is connected to everything, but she makes a clear distinction between the attributes of God and all other substances.
Anne Conway states that ‘created’ substances can change but it is limited to only substances that are alike. In opposition to Rene Descartes and Henry More’s theory of substance dualism, Conway argues that, “Spirit and Body differ not essentially, but gradually.” Body and Soul are to be understood as different degrees of the same substance. The essence and properties of a substance does not change because substances cannot lose or gain essence and properties; otherwise, they would be changing types of substance. Substances can change in terms of degrees of Body and Soul.
At the bottom of the hierarchy is Creatures. Conway describes the distinction of God and Creatures as, “For if any Creature were of it self, and in its own Nature unchangeable, that Creature would be God, because Immutability is one of his incommunicable Attributes” (Conway Principles VI.1). For creatures, any change is not by substance but by degree. Body and soul are non-distinct from one another but are simply degrees of the same substance that differs in density. The analogy that Conway uses to illustrate this change or degree better is through a scale of light and dark. The soul is represented by light and the Body by darkness. Creatures that are more active and spiritual are brighter on the scale, whereas less active and corporeal creatures are darker. Creatures are made of both Spirit and Body. There is an infinite number of creatures that are also made up of infinite creatures. Every creature communicates with another through different emanations of Spirits. Creature changes are different from other substances and are primarily based on the means of relative goodness. The more ‘good’ a creature becomes, the more ‘God-like’ it becomes.
Other philosophers question Conway by asking how much a creature can change without changing substance. Conway answers this by stating ontological limits; for example, Creatures can become ‘light’ or ‘dark’ but cannot acquire attributes of God or middle natures. She further specifies that change in Creatures happens over the course of the existence of time and is not limited to the natural lifetime. Conway gives the example of a Horse’s transformation into a Human. Across multiple lifetimes, minuscule changes will occur without changing the essence of being a living being/Creature.
Within the hierarchy of species, Conway’s concept of perfectibility is a core idea. Perfectibility in her hierarchy has two main features, morality and existence. As explained earlier, all beings have the ability to change in goodness or badness. Perfection, in this case, is defined by elite goodness. If all substances can become more or less good, then they are able to change in perfectibility. All substances are connected to God and hold some similitude to God; then, all substances have the ability to do and strive for good. This must then mean that everything is perfectible and can change to be more good than its original being (with the limitation of infinite goodness that God possesses). The same idea applies to the opposite, badness. A substance can change to be increasingly bad, yet it cannot become completely bad because it would lose goodness from God (which would contradict being impossible).
Glossary:
- Creature(s)- Third species of the hierarchy, includes all beings that are not God or Middle Nature such as humans, plants, animals, and any other living thing
- Goodness- defined by godlikeness
- Middle Nature- Middle species of the hierarchy, connection between God and Creatures
- Species- Everything/every being that exists
- Substance- What species consist of, the essences or ‘stuff’ that makes up every being