Anne's life was marked by the recurrence of severe migraines from the age of twelve, when she suffered a period of fever.

This meant that she was often incapacitated by pain, and she spent much time under medical supervision and searching for a cure, at one point even having her jugular veins opened.

The extreme pain she experienced led her to pursue her philosophical studies from the comfort of her own home.

[9] The Conways had consulted the Swiss royal physician of the time, Theodore Turquet de Mayerne, as well as natural philosopher Robert Boyle.

In The Principles, written around 1677, Conway develops a monistic view of the world, where it consists of only one substance.

She also argues against Henry More's concept of the soul in his Antidote Against Atheism and dualist theories of the relationship between the body and spirit.

[11] The text was influenced by Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont,[12] who also first published it in Latin translation as Principia philosophiae antiquissimae et recentissimae in 1690.

[13] Throughout her life, Conway exchanged numerous letters with Henry More, Francis Mercury van Helmont, and other major thinkers of her time.

In these letters, she discussed numerous philosophical and theological concepts and occasionally wrote about personal matters, like the death of her son.

[15] Conway's work was an influence on Gottfried Leibniz, and Hugh Trevor-Roper called her "England's greatest female philosopher.