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35Have biologists wrapped up philosophy?Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 43 (2). 2000.An examination of the currently fashionable thesis that scientists, and especially biologists in the wake of the Darwinian Revolution, can now solve the problems that traditional philosophers have only talked about. Past philosophers, for example during the Enlightenment, have themselves made use of contemporary, scientific techniques and theories. The present claim may only be another such move, to be welcomed by philosophers who would distinguish themselves from rhetoricians. Others may prefer…Read more
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28A new stoicism by Lawrence C. Becker. Princeton university press: Princeton, new jersey, 1998, 272pp; ISBN 0 691 01660 7 £22.50 (review)Philosophy 74 (1): 122-139. 1999.
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54Living high and letting die: Our illusion of innocence by Peter Unger. Oxford university press: New York & oxford, 1996, 199pp; ISBN 0195075897 £35.00; 0195108590 £13.50 (review)Philosophy 74 (1): 122-139. 1999.
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116The evolution of language: Truth and liesPhilosophy 75 (3): 401-421. 2000.There is both theoretical and experimental reason to suppose that no-one could ever have learned to speak without an environment of language-users. How then did the first language-users learn? Animal communication systems provide no help, since human languages aren't constituted as a natural system of signs, and are essentially recursive and syntactic. Such languages aren't demanded by evolution, since most creatures, even intelligent creatures, manage very well without them. I propose that repr…Read more
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50Aristotle's classification of animals. Biology and the conceptual unity of the aristotelian corpusJournal of the History of Philosophy 27 (2): 300-302. 1989.
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61Non-personal mindsIn Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, Cambridge University Press. pp. 185-209. 2003.Persons are creatures with a range of personal capacities. Most known to us are also people, though nothing in observation or biological theory demands that all and only people are persons, nor even that persons, any more than people, constitute a natural kind. My aim is to consider what non-personal minds are like. Darwin's Earthworms are sensitive, passionate and, in their degree, intelligent. They may even construct maps, embedded in the world they perceive around them, so as to be able to co…Read more
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1The description and evaluation of animal emotionIn Colin Blakemore & Susan A. Greenfield (eds.), Mindwaves, Blackwell. 1987.
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69Minds, memes, and multiplesPhilosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 3 (1): 21-28. 1996.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Minds, Memes, and MultiplesStephen R. L. Clark (bio)AbstractMultiple Personality Disorder is sometimes interpreted as evidence for a radically pluralistic theory of the human mind, judged to be at odds with an older, monistic theory. Older philosophy, on the contrary, suggests that the mind is both plural (in its sub-systems or personalities) and unitary (in that there is only one light over all those lesser parts). Talk of gods and …Read more
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77Minds, memes, and rhetoricInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 36 (1-2): 3-16. 1993.Dennett's Consciousness Explained presents, but does not demonstrate, a fully naturalized account of consciousness that manages to leave out the very consciousness he purports to explain. If he were correct, realism and methodological individualism would collapse, as would the very enterprise of giving reasons. The metaphors he deploys actually testify to the power of metaphoric imagination that can no more be identified with the metaphors it creates than minds can be identified with memes. That…Read more
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41Slaves and CitizensPhilosophy 60 (231): 27-. 1985.R. M. Hare has argued 1 that there are conceivable circumstances in which it would be right not to abolish the institution of slavery: in the imaginary land of Juba established slave-plantations are managed by a benevolent elite for the good of all, no ‘cruel or unusual ’ punishments are in use, and citizens of the neighbouring island of Camaica, ‘free ’but impoverished, regularly seek to become slaves. Hare adds that it is unlikely, given human nature, that ‘masters ’would treat ‘slaves ’humane…Read more
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5Form and Transformation: a study in the philosophy of PlotinusPhilosophical Books 36 (1): 40-42. 1995.
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26Patrides, Plotinus and the Cambridge PlatonistsBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 25 (5): 858-877. 2017.Discussion of the Cambridge Platonists, by Constantinos Patrides and others, is often vitiated by the mistaken contrasts drawn between those philosophers and late antique Platonists such as Plotinus. I draw attention especially to Patrides’s errors, and argue in particular that Plotinus and his immediate followers were as concerned about this world and our immediate duties to our neighbours as the Cambridge Platonists. Even the doctrine of deification is one shared by all Platonists, though it i…Read more
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36Plotinus on intellect – eyjólfur kjalar EmilssonPhilosophical Quarterly 59 (235): 357-359. 2009.No Abstract
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95How 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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1Philosophical FuturesPeter Lang. 2011.A collection of papers, revised for the volume, on likely and unlikely futures for humanity.
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36Utility, Rights and the Domestic Virtues: Or What's Wrong With RaymondBetween the Species 4 (4): 3. 1988.
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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 |