Conway held nature is a living body far more sublime than a machine

Evidence

Like More and Cudworth, Lady Conway differed from Descartes on the subject of cosmic and animal mechanism. Although Descartes had discovered many mechanical laws, nature was not a machine, but a living body: “But yet in nature, and her operations, they [natural operations] are far more than merely mechanical … like a clock, wherein there is not vital principle of motion; but a living body, having life and sense, which body is far more sublime than a mere mechanism, or mechanical motion.” — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 957

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets Conway’s explicit contrast of living body versus machine as the contested fork within the Scientific Revolution.
• XREF: connects to: Anne Conway proposed monism whereby body is condensed spirit and spirit is volatile body — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 950; Conway rejected mechanistic motion by affirming the whole creation is vitally alive. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 966

Broader Connections

• Conway rejected mechanistic motion by affirming the whole creation is vitally alive. #corroborates (0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 966
• Anne Conway proposed monism whereby body is condensed spirit and spirit is volatile body #expands (0.85) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 950