Quayshawn Spencer Honored by Philosophy of Science Journal

The journal Philosophy of Science recently published its 90th anniversary issue, and to mark the occasion, the editorial board selected 30 of the “best and most significant work the journal has published over the years.” That list included the paper “A Radical Solution to the Race Problem,” written by Quayshawn Spencer, Robert S. Blank Presidential Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, selected as one of the four best papers from the last decade.
 
“That journal is widely regarded as the top journal in the subfield of philosophy of science,” Spencer says. What’s more, Spencer is in amazing company, with Albert Einstein and philosopher of science Carl Hempel also included on the list.
 
Spencer’s research specializes in three areas: philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, and philosophy of race. Within those areas, he focuses on subjects like as what is an appropriate way to define “natural kinds,” whether there is any way to group organisms into biologically real subspecies, and whether folk racial classification divides people into real biological groups.