Dr. Quayshawn Spencer specializes in philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of race. In philosophy of science, he primarily focus on metaphysical problems in science, such as what is an appropriate way to define “natural kinds.” In philosophy of biology, he primarily focus on metaphysical problems in biology, such as whether biological populations can have fuzzy temporal parts; and whether there’s any way to divide Homo sapiens into biologically real races for taxonomy, population genetics, or medicine. In philosophy of race, he primarily focuses on metaphysical problems in race theory, such as whether any folk racial classification divides people into real biological groups. However, he has started to break his metaphysics streak and venture into bioethical issues, esp. how we ought to define ‘race’ and ‘racism’ for the purposes of solving the racial health disparities problem in H. sapiens.
Faculty