The confrontation between New Science and Literature in the 17th century in England: Anne Conway’s vitalist cosmology

Abstract

This paper tries to highlight the actual variations between the discourse used in scientific texts and that used in literary texts, and more specifically, in poetry. Scientific rationalism would show disdain on the discourse of poetry when dealing with the supernatural, the imponderable, the magic and the powers of spell, all of which mean a special use of language based on the power of imagination. Furthermore, John Locke would be ready to look down on imagination, considered a source of mental madness, by stating that if truth and reality belong to the world of science, poetry belongs to the world of ghosts. According to the terms used by T S Eliot, scientific rationalism would trigger a “dissociation of sensibility”, one of the reasons why we cannot find a link between intelligence and imagination in late 17th century poetry. As a leading figure of scientific rationalism, Anne Conway is a writer who joined the third most important movement of the 17th century English philosophy, namely the Cambridge Platonism, together with other prominent figures like Thomas Hobbes and John Locke.