The
Work of Bowman L. Clarke
Among Philosophers who have been trained and worked within the areas of
process philosophy and theology, analytic philosophy, and philosophic logic,
Bowman L. Clarke stands out as one of the key figures who have attempted
to integrate these three distinct and overlapping fields of 20th Century
philosophical inquiry.
Bowman Lafayette Clarke was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on September
19, 1927. He earned a BA degree from Millsaps College (1948), a BD and MA
in Theology from Emory University (1952), a MA in philosophy from the University
of Mississippi (1957). and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Emory University (1961).
Early in his career, he served as Director of the Wesley Foundation at Georgia
State College for Women (1953-54) and at the University of Mississippi (1954-57).
He was an Instructor of Philosophy at the University of the South for one
year (1959-60) and held a research position at Emory University for one
year (1960-61) before joining the Department of Philosophy at the University
of Georgia as an Assistant Professor in 1961 where he spent the rest of
his career. He became a Professor of Philosophy in 1967 and served as Coordinator
of Graduate Studies and as Head of the Department for many years (from 1972-79).
He retired in 1990 and died at his home in Athens, Georgia, on November
20, 1996.
During his distinguished career, Clarke held several important and prestigious
offices in various professional societies. He was President of the Georgia
Philosophical Society (1968-69), President of the Society for the Philosophy
of Religion (1972-73), and a member of the Council (1978-82) and then President
of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology (1988-89). He served
first as Associate Editor of the International Journal for Philosophy of
Religion (1970-74) and then as Editor-in-Chief of that same journal for
nearly fifteen years (1975-89). During his tenure, the journal not only
increased dramatically in circulation, but under his leadership, it also
became one of the most recognized and highly regarded journals in the field
of the philosophy of religion. He was active in several different professional
societies including the American Philosophical Association, the Metaphysical
Society of America, the Society for Philosophy of Religion, the Southern
Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and the Society for the Advancement
of American Philosophy.
He was the author of Language and Natural Theology (The Hague: Mouton and
Co., 1966), a revised and enlarged version of the dissertation which he
wrote under Charles Hartshorne during Hartshorne’s tenure at Emory
University. He was also the editor or co-editor of several volumes, including,
most recently, God and Temporality (edited with Eugene T. Long)(New York:
the Paragon Press, 1984). He was also the author of dozens of articles in
various professional journals and anthologies, and he delivered numerous
papers at various meetings of different professional societies and different
universities across the country.
His main contributions to scholarship fall into three areas: first, he was
a recognized, leading scholar and interpreter of the works of Alfred North
Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. In a series of six very important articles,
Clarke analyzed and assessed various interpretations and criticisms of Whitehead
and Hartshorne and attempted to show clearly wherein their process views
were similar as well as different. Representative of these articles is his
invited piece in the 25th Anniversary Issue of the International Journal
for Philosophy of Religion, entitled "Two process views of God."
Secondly, in a series of five articles on the classical arguments for the
existence of God, he explored the common logical assumptions and the logical
constructions of the different formulations of the classical arguments from
Anselm and Aquinas to Plantinga. Especially interesting is his work on Peirce’s
abductive argument and the way in which logical abduction provides the first
step in formulating the hypothesis of God which must be clarified and justified
within a metaphysical theory which assumes the modal criteria of both possibility
and necessity. He sees Anselm’s and Aquinas’ work as models of
what needs to be done today. A nice summary of his interpretation is "The
Logical Roles of Proofs for the Existence of God" in Reason, Experience
and God, ed., Eugene T. Long (Washington: Catholic University of America
Press, l980). Finally, he made important and novel contributions to what
is called "logical construction"--the attempt to use a formal,
rigorous, logically constructed axiomatic system to provide a metaphysical
explanation of the universe. Using individual variables to range over spatio-temporal
regions and the primitive predicate,"x is connected with y" Clarke’s
development of the calculus of individuals and qualitative abstraction continued
the tradition represented by A. N. Whitehead's Process and Reality, Rudolf
Carnap's The Logical Structure of the World, and Nelson Goodman's The Structure
of. Appearance. With reference to process philosophy, see his contribution
"Logical Construction, Whitehead, and God" in the volume of papers
in his honor: Logic, God and Metaphysics: Studies in Philosophy and Religion
Volume l5, ed. James Franklin Harris (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers,
l992) .
Clarke’s work is exemplary of the highest standards of rigorous philosophical
analysis and construction, and for all those who are interested in the advancement
of process philosophy and theology, an acquaintance with Clarke’s productive
accomplishments is a must. His understanding of Whitehead and Hartshorne,
in our judgment, is unsurpassed and his philosophic logic exhibits maximum
candor.
William L. Power
University of Georgia
James F. Harris
College of William and Mary