Research

Faculty Research

From Ancient Greece to the Internet of Things

Clark’s philosophy faculty research a range of topics, including the philosophy of law, aesthetics, the philosophy of mind, environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, metaphysics, the history of philosophy, and more.

Ravi Sharma

Professor Sharma’s main research interests are in the Greek philosophy of the 6th to 4th centuries BCE. In addition to teaching courses in ancient philosophy, he regularly offers courses in metaphysics, the history of early modern philosophy, and themes in late-19th- and early 20th-century thought.
Scott Hendricks

Professor Hendricks’ primary research interests concern issues within the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and epistemology. Presently, he is focusing on the nature of so-called “phenomenal concepts” — our concepts of the qualitative aspects of our own sensory experience — and the role they play in discussions about anti-physicalist arguments.
Wes DeMarco

Wes DeMarco 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.
Wiebke Deimling

Professor Deimling’s main research and teaching concern 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century philosophy, questions in the philosophy of art, ethical questions, and questions about the emotions and human nature.

Publications

Plato’s Hippias Minor

Ravi Sharma

The book offers a new philosophical interpretation of a misunderstood and long-neglected Platonic dialogue. In addition to analyzing in detail the dialogue’s arguments, the book also provides an in-depth study of the dialogue in its intellectual, literary, and historical context.

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Reasons

Paul Broderick

Based on over twenty years of teaching, this text is meant to support a variety of classes with titles like Principles of Thinking, Introduction to Logic, Analytic Reasoning. Students are introduced to the techniques of reasoning, but are also encouraged to develop a coherent understanding of how reason works.
The Passion for Freedom and the Passion for the Ultimate Means

Wiebke Deimling

Deimling’s paper looks at the role a passion for freedom plays in Kant’s moral philosophy. Can a passion for freedom give us moral guidance and serve as a ground for our moral claims? It is likely to mislead us to be overly self-centered. But it is also an important spur for our moral development.

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The Bloomsbury Handbook of Socrates

Ravi Sharma

This handbook provides detailed philosophical analysis of the life and thought of Socrates across fifteen in-depth chapters. Each chapter engages with a central aspect of the rich tradition of Socratic studies and, after surveying the state of scholarship, points the way forward to new directions of interpretation.

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Faculty awards

These recognitions are awarded annually to full-time faculty who personify the Clark ideal of combining excellence in teaching, scholarship and engagement with the Clark community.

David P. Angel Senior Faculty Award

Ravi Sharma, Fall 2024
Rosalind S. Roberts Faculty Award

Wiebke Deimling, Spring 2023

Student research

Philosophy majors are encouraged to conduct research, whether part of a course, an internship, or independent study. Eligible students may choose to apply to the department’s Honors Program and complete a thesis under the direction of a faculty member.

Philosophy student projects

What do you meme? The philosophy of language and memes

Tetrah Clark ’24

presented at ClarkFEST
The Question of Artificial Agency

Nadav Battat ’20

presented at the 2018 meeting of the Northern New England Philosophical Association at the University of Vermont, Burlington
Probabilistic Indeterminism

Nadav Battat ’20

presented at the 2017 meeting of the Northern New England Philosophical Association (NNEPA) at Stonehill College, Easton, Mass
Capitalist Hindrances to Moral Willing: Lessons from Kant and Marx

James Patin ’17

presented at the 2016 meeting of the Northern New England Philosophical Association at Keene State College, N.H.
The Contribution of Theater to Public Moral Consciousness

Themal Ellawala ’17

presented at the Celebrating Philosophy conference at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester
Nihilism, Happiness, and Ancient Greek Philosophy

El Mehdi Ainasse ’16

accepted for presentation at the 2013 Ohio State Undergraduate Philosophy Conference

Senior honors theses

The Compatibility of Constitutive Luck and Moral Responsibility, Catherine Hackett
Strangers Together: Towards Accepting Psychological and Political Foreignness, Kaitlyn Anderson
Quest for Harmony: the Thomist View of the Relationship between Faith and Reason, Alfredo Nicolás Dueñas Burneo
A New Characterization of Emergence, and Its Consequences, Henry Weiss
An Encomium of Gorgias: a new interpretation of the Helen, Ram Sharma
Autonomy and Paternalism in Medical Ethics: The Great Conflict, Alyssa Woodcock
Nietzsche and the return to naturalism, Andrew Magnusson
Soren Kierkegaard on Being Human, Christina Danko
Being-toward-death: Dasein’s Optimal Ontological Priority, Christine Rojcewicz
A new theory of man: the philosophical ideas of Walker Percy, Jacqueline Sullivan
Foucault’s critique of modernity and the project of a therapeutic ethics, Jeffrey Bernstein
Wittgenstein and the crisis of language, Jonathan Messinger
Kant and Bell: Form in Modern Art, Patrick Greer
Adherence to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy for HIV Positive Individuals: Biological and Ethical Considerations, Sarah Koehring
Personal identity: overcoming the Cartesian-Empiricist tradition, Timothy Nulty
Nietzsche and the crisis of modern art, Zachary Galen