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20Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy: An IntroductionContinuum. 2013.In composing this study of 'Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy', I have chosen to draw attention to other philosophical traditions than the Classical Greek and Latin , although we know much less about them. My working assumption is that ...
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74The rights of wild thingsInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 22 (1-4). 1979.It has been argued that if non-human animals had rights we should be obliged to defend them against predators. I contend that this either does not follow, follows in the abstract but not in practice, or is not absurd. We should defend non-humans against large or unusual dangers, when we can, but should not claim so much authority as to regulate all the relationships of wild things. Some non-human animals are members of our society, and the rhetoric of 'the land as a community' is an attempt, par…Read more
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553How to Become UnconsciousRoyal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 67 21-44. 2010.Consistent materialists are almost bound to suggest that , if it exists at all, is no more than epiphenomenal. A correct understanding of the real requires that everything we do and say is no more than a product of whatever processes are best described by physics, without any privileged place, person, time or scale of action. Consciousness is a myth, or at least a figment. Plotinus was no materialist: for him, it is Soul and Intellect that are more real than the phenomena we misdescribe as mater…Read more
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1The Ethics of Taxonomy: a neo-Aristotelian SynthesisIn Evangelos D. Protopapadakis (ed.), Animal Ethics: Past and Present Perspectives, Logos Verlag. 2012.How the 'Aristotelian' biological synthesis has been affected by modern accounts of biological evolution, and the relation of taxonomy to ethics.
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7A parliament of soulsOxford University Press. 1990.This second volume in the Limits and Renewals trilogy is an attempt to restate a traditional philosophy of mind, drawing on philosophical and poetical resources that are often neglected in modern and postmodern thought, and emphasizing the moral and political implications of differing philosophies of mind and value. Clark argues that without the traditional concept of the soul, we have little reason to believe that rational thought and individual autonomy are either possible or desirable. The pa…Read more
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416Folly to the Greeks: Good Reasons to Give up ReasonEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion 4 (1): 93-113. 2012.A discussion of why a strong doctrine of 'reason' may not be worth sustaining in the face of modern scientific speculation, and the difficulties this poses for scientific rationality, together with comments on the social understanding of religion, and why we might wish to transcend common sense.
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33How to Live Forever: Science Fiction and PhilosophyRoutledge. 1995.Immortality is a subject which has long been explored and imagined by science fiction writers. In his intriguing new study, Stephen R.L.Clark argues that the genre of science fiction writing allows investigation of philosophical questions about immortality without the constraints of academic philosophy. He reveals how fantasy accounts of issues such as resurrection, disembodied survival, reincarnation and devices or drugs for preserving life can be used as an important resource for philosophical…Read more
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What has Plotinus' one to do with God?In John Cornwell & Michael McGhee (eds.), Philosophers and God: at the frontiers of faith and reason, Continuum. 2009.
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2Philosophical FuturesPeter Lang. 2011.A collection of papers, revised for the volume, on likely and unlikely futures for humanity.
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37Utility, Rights and the Domestic Virtues: Or What's Wrong With RaymondBetween the Species 4 (4): 3. 1988.
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2A Parliament of Souls: Limits and Renewals 2Oxford University Press UK. 1990.Limits and Renewals is a trilogy based on the Stanton Lectures in the Philosophy of Religion delivered at the University of Cambridge in 1986-8. In this, the second volume, Professor Clark attempts to restate a traditional philosophy of mind, drawing upon philosophical and poetic resources that are often neglected in modern and post-modern thought, and emphasizing the moral and political implications of differing `philosophies of mind and value'. He presents a study of the soul as it has traditi…Read more
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7Civil peace and sacred orderOxford University Press. 1989.This book is an ambitious and challenging restatement of traditional political philosophy. The first of a three-volume series, Limits and Renewals, the book is concerned with the nature of political society, particularly with the errors and faulty arguments that have been used to support a "liberal modernist" view of the state and our political system. Clark argues that political modernism, which is determinedly secular and untraditional, has been a destructive influence on religion and our unde…Read more
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35Animals and Their Moral StandingRoutledge. 1997.Twenty years ago, people thought only cranks or sentimentalists could be seriously concerned about the treatment of non-human animals. However, since then philosophers, scientists and welfarists have raised public awareness of the issue; and they have begun to lay the foundations for an enormous change in human practice. This book is a record of the development of 'animal rights' through the eyes of one highly-respected and well-known thinker. This book brings together for the first time Stephen…Read more
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1Animals in Classical and Late Antique PhilosophyIn L. Beauchamp Tom & R. G. Frey (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Animal Ethics, Oxford University Press Usa. 2011.A description and analysis of attitudes to non-human animals in classical and late antique Mediterranean thought.
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8Late antique epistemology: other ways to truth (edited book)Palgrave-Macmillan. 2009.Late Antique Epistemology explores the techniques used by late antique philosophers to discuss truth. Non-rational ways to discover truth, or to reform the soul, have usually been thought inferior to the philosophically approved techniques of rational argument, suitable for the less philosophically inclined, for children, savages or the uneducated. Religious rituals, oracles, erotic passion, madness may all have served to waken courage or remind us of realities obscured by everyday concerns. Wha…Read more
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University of BristolHonorary Research Fellow
Liverpool, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Philosophical Traditions |