Wes DeMarco

Teaching Professor, Philosophy

Dr. DeMarco (Ph.D, Vanderbilt University 1991) has taught full time at Clark since 2007, serving as Lecturer since 2011 and Senior Lecturer since 2014. He has worked for three decades to develop a ‘Neosocratic’ philosophy that engages Western and Asian wisdom traditions, and which offers a fresh approach to the philosophical life, meaning, metaphysics, nature, and human agency and interagency. Central to this approach is how the lineaments of wisdom might be intimated in the questions by which it is sought and the qualifications of language and thought needed to articulate these. The approach hangs on a general theory of symbolization and the metaphysics of nature implied by this theory. Ethics and aesthetics follow in turn. Wes was awarded the Aristotle Prize by the Metaphysical Society of America in 1997. He was awarded the Frank Thompson Award for excellence in sleight of hand in 1977. He is ranked in three styles of martial art. Wes is a published poet and amateur composer and guitarist (Listen to his Soundcloud).

Degrees

  • Ph.D. in , Vanderbilt University, 1991
  • M.A. in , Catholic University of America, 1986
  • B.A. in , Catholic University of America, 1981

Affiliated Department

Philosophy

Scholarly and creative works

  • Presentations

    “The Blur of Virtuality” 

    2025 meeting of the Metaphysical Society of America
    Atlanta, GA
    March
    2025
    Sponsored by MSA
    Wes W. DeMarco
  • Presentations

    “Whither the Sociopolitical Animal?  What Aristotle Can Teach Marx About Dialectic.”

    2025 Meeting of the Center for Contemporary Aristotelian Studies in Ethics and Politics
    Providence, RI
    March
    2025
    Sponsored by CASEP
    Wes W. DeMarco
  • Chapters In Books

    Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 38(1), 2024.
    Chapter: “Comment on Wians, ‘Aristotle’s Discovery of First Philosophy’”

    Published by Brill
    2024
    Wes W. DeMarco
  • Presentations

    “Rights in the Shadows of Virtue”

    Center for Contemporary Aristotelian Studies in Ethics and Politics
    Providence College
    April 19-20
    2024
    Sponsored by CASEP
    Wes W. DeMarco
  • Presentations

    “A Dilemma for Wians: Comment on “Aristotle’s Discovery of First Philosophy”

    Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy
    College of the Holy Cross
    9/8/23
    2023
    Sponsored by BACAP
    Wes W. DeMarco
  • Presentations

    “Philosophical Dialogue and Metaphysical Fluency”

    72nd Annual meeting of the Metaphysical Society of America
    Marquette University
    March 24-27
    2022
    Wes W. DeMarco
  • Presentations

    “An Environmental Ethic Worth Mulling”

    Northern New England Philosophical Association
    College of the Holy Cross
    November
    2019
    Charles W. DeMarco
  • Presentations

    “Gandhi’s Concept of Truth”

    Clark’s Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of Gandhi’s birth
    Goddard
    October
    2019
    Sponsored by Robert H. Goddard Library
    Charles W. DeMarco