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John P. Clark

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John P. Clark
Born
John Philip Clark

1945
New Orleans, United States
Alma materTulane University
Notable workThe Philosophical Anarchism of William Godwin
Era20th-/21st-century philosophy
RegionWestern Philosophy
School
Main interests
Dialectics, anarchism, communitarianism, psychoanalysis, Zen Buddhism

John Philip Clark (1945), known professionally as John P. Clark, is an American philosopher, academic, dialectician, author, environmental activist, social theorist, and anarchist. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Loyola University New Orleans, where he was the Gregory F. Curtin Distinguished Professor in Humane Letters and the Professions.[1] He is currently director of the La Terre Institute for Ecology and Community in Dedeaux, MS. The author and editor of several books and numerous articles, he is also known to write under the pen name Max Cafard.

Early life and education

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John Clark was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 21, 1945, where his family had resided for twelve generations.[1]

Clark completed his undergraduate and graduate education at Tulane University and spent his academic career at Loyola University New Orleans. During that time, he served as a faculty member of the Environmental Studies program, as well as Professor of Philosophy, eventually becoming the Gregory F. Curtin Distinguished Professor in Humane Letters and Professions.[1]

Some of Clark's earliest published works included a critique of Young Hegelian Max Stirner's egoism (1977), as well as The Philosophical Anarchism of William Godwin (1977).

Clark contributed to the editing and translation of the work of anarchist and naturalist Elisée Reclus into English. With Camille Martin, this culminated in A Voyage to New Orleans: Anarchist Impressions of the Old South (2004) and Anarchy, Geography, Modernity: Selected Writings of Elisée Reclus (2005, 2013), for which he also provided commentary.

In 2008, Clark was recognized with the Dux Academicus award as an outstanding member of faculty.[2]

Other recognition includes the Pax Christi New Orleans Bread and Roses Award, Anthony Waters Distinguished Teaching Award, and City College Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship.[3]

In 2013, Clark published The Impossible Community: Realizing Communitarian Anarchism, a dialectical contribution to contemporary anarchist theory rooted in but differentiated from the social ecology of Murray Bookchin. A follow-up, titled Between Earth and Empire: From the Necrocene to the Beloved Community was published in 2019.

The John P. Clark Papers are housed in the Special Collections and Archives of the J. Edgar and Louis S. Monroe Library, containing primarily correspondence and publications.[3]

He is a member of the Education Workers' Union of the Industrial Workers of the World.[1]

John Clark is currently the Director of the La Terre Institute for Community and Ecology, which sponsors courses and projects with the aim "at social and ecological regeneration and the creation of a cooperative, non-dominating earth community."[1]

Activism

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Anarchists John P. Clark (right) and Peter Marshall in conversation

Though splitting ideologically from Bookchin's social ecology in the mid-1990s, Clark began differentiating his approach in 1999 with his essay "The Politics of Social Ecology: Beyond the Limits of the City."[4] He would further differentiate between Bookchin's social ecology and what Clark calls dialectical social ecology with the publication of "Domesticating the Dialectic: A Critique of Bookchin's Neo-Aristotelianism in 2008.[5][6][7]

Selected works

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As editor

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  • Renewing the Earth, the Promise of Social Ecology: A Celebration of the Work of Murray Bookchin (1990)
  • A Voyage to New Orleans: Anarchist Impressions of the Old South (with Camille Martin) (2004)
  • Environmental Philosophy: From Animal Rights to Radical Ecology, 4th edition (Zimmerman, et al.) (2004)
  • Anarchy, Geography, Modernity: Selected Writings of Elisée Reclus (with Camille Martin) (2013)

As Max Cafard

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  • The Surre(gion)alist Manifesto and Other Writings (2003)
  • FLOOD BOOK (2008)
  • Surregional Explorations (2012)
  • Lightning Storm Mind: Pre-Ancientist Meditations (2017)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "John P. Clark Emeritus Professor of Philosophy". Loyola University New Orleans. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  2. ^ "Dux Academicus Award". Loyola University New Orleans. Archived from the original on January 8, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  3. ^ a b "John P. Clark Papers, Collection 57". J. Edgar and Louis S. Monroe Library, Special Collections and Archives. Archived from the original on January 8, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  4. ^ "Beyond the Limits of the City (Abstract)". Democracy and Nature, Vol. 5, No. 3. Archived from the original on January 8, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  5. ^ Clark, John (2008). "Domesticating the Dialectic: A Critique of Bookchin's Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics". Capitalism Nature Socialism. 19. Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 19, No. 1: 82–97. doi:10.1080/10455750701859471. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  6. ^ "Reply to John Clark's 'Domesticating the Dialectic' by Janet Biehl". Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 20, No. 1. doi:10.1080/10455750902727428. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  7. ^ Clark, John (2009). "On Biehl's Defense of Bookchin's Immanent Dialectic". Capitalism Nature Socialism. 20. Capitalism Nature Socialism, Vol. 20, No. 1: 125–129. doi:10.1080/10455750902727451. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  8. ^ West, Thomas G. (1980). "Max Stirner's Egoism (review)". Journal of the History of Philosophy. 18 (1): 101–103. doi:10.1353/hph.2008.0728. ISSN 1538-4586.
  9. ^ Warner, Martin (1979). "The Philosophical Anarchism of William Godwin". The Modern Language Review. 74 (4): 921. doi:10.2307/3728250. JSTOR 3728250.
  10. ^ Lemahieu, D. L. (1978). "The Philosophical Anarchism of William Godwin". The American Historical Review. 83 (1): 161. doi:10.2307/1865947. JSTOR 1865947.
  11. ^ "Dr. John Clark, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Publishes New Book". Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences, Loyola University New Orleans. Archived from the original on January 8, 2024. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  12. ^ Springer, Simon (2021-01-02). "Between Earth and Empire: From the Necrocene to the Beloved Community: John P. Clark. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2019. xxiv and 333 pp., notes, index. $24.95 paper (ISBN 978-1-62963-648-1)". The AAG Review of Books. 9 (1): 30–31. doi:10.1080/2325548X.2021.1843916. ISSN 2325-548X.
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