Stephen R. L. Clark

Stephen Richard Lyster Clark (born 30 October 1945) is an English philosopher and professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Liverpool.

Clark specialises in the philosophy of religion and animal rights, writing from a philosophical position that might broadly be described as Christian Platonist.

Clark was born on 30 October 1945 in Luton, Bedfordshire.

His family originally came from Shropshire and Staffordshire.

His father, D. A. R. Clark, was an apprentice railway engineer who became a technology teacher, and was later appointed principal of Middlesbrough Technical College, now Teesside University, then principal of Nottingham Technical College, now Nottingham Trent University.

His mother, M. K. Clark, was a teacher and the daughter of Samuel Finney.

Clark was raised in the Anglican tradition.

After attending Nottingham High School (1956–1964), Clark won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford (1964–1968), graduating with a first-class honours degree in greats (classics) in 1968, followed by a fellowship at All Souls (1968–1975).

He was awarded his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1973.

Brannon Hancock writes that the philosophers Arthur Prior and Sir Anthony Kenny had a great intellectual influence on Clark at Balliol, while Robin Zaehner was one of his greatest influences at All Souls.

He is the author of twenty books, including The Moral Status of Animals (1977), The Nature of the Beast (1982), Animals and Their Moral Standing (1997), G.K. Chesterton (2006), Philosophical Futures (2011), and Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy (2012), as well as 77 scholarly articles, and chapters in another 109 books.

In 1977, Clark authored The Moral Status of Animals.

According to a description of the book, "he argues that logical extension of the liberal tradition of sparing animals "unnecessary pain" is sufficient to impose a moral obligation of vegetarianism".

Clark has delivered a number of well-renowned lectures, including the 1981–1982 Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow, entitled "From Athens to Jerusalem", the Stanton Lectures in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge (1987–1989), and the Wilde Lectures at the University of Oxford (1990).

Clark's 1982 book The Nature of the Beast: Are Animals Moral? argues that whilst animals may show certain behaviours that appear to be ethical by human standards, animals are not moral because they cannot moralize about themselves or create moral theories.

After Oxford, Clark lectured in moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow for nine years, until he was appointed professor of philosophy at Liverpool in 1984.

He is a former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Philosophy (1990–2001).

He has also delivered the Scott Holland Lecture at the University of Liverpool (1992), the Aquinas Lecture at the University of Oxford (1994), the Read Tuckwell Lecture at the University of Bristol (1994), the Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture at Durham University (1995), and the Aquinas Lecture at KU Leuven (2000).

Stephen Clark is married to Gillian Clark, with whom he has three children, Samuel, Alexandra, and Verity.

Clark is a Christian vegetarian.

Clark served on the British government's Animal Procedures Committee, a group that advises the Home Secretary on animal testing, from 1998 until 2006.

He has also been involved with the Boyd Group, a think tank set up by researchers involved in animal testing, and others who oppose it.

He retired from this post at the end of 2009.

Clark has also been a visiting professor at Vanderbilt University and held an Alan Richardson Fellowship at Durham University.

Much of the early part of Clark's work was distinguished by writing and service related to animal ethics.

Clark's most recent work has focused on Plotinus with Plotinus: Myth, Metaphor and Philosophical Practice (University of Chicago Press, 2016), Plotinus Ennead VI.9: On the Good or the One: Translation with an Introduction and Commentary (Parmenides Press, 2020), and Cities and Thrones and Powers: Towards a Plotinian Politics (Angelico Press: New Hampshire 2022).