Volume V (2022)
Quayshawn Spencer University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Quayshawn Spencer is the Robert S. Banks Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He works primarily on metaphysical problems that lie at the intersection of the philosophy of biology and philosophy of race. Spencer gave the keynote address at the Tenth Mid-Hudson Valley Undergraduate Philosophy Conference held in April 2022 at Marist College. This interview was conducted over email in Summer 2022.
Marist Journal: Do you think it is important or necessary for philosophers to have a background in biology or the sciences when studying the philosophy of race?
Quayshawn Spencer : Necessary, no. Important, yes. But a “background” in biology or the
sciences doesn’t have to be a degree. It could just be some basic understanding of the relevant
science. One reason why is because you can’t fully understand many 20 th and 21 st century race
theories without a basic understanding of the relevant evolutionary biology, ecology, systemic
biology, and genetics. For example, Massimo Pigliucci, Jonathan Kaplan, and John Dupré are all
philosophers who have argued that biological races currently exist in the human species as
ecotypes. How can one even understand what that assertion means without understanding what an
ecotype is? Likewise, Michael Levin, Robin Andreasen, and Robert Brandon are all philosophers
who have defended theories that biologically meaningful human races are clades. How can you
fully understand what these philosophers are claiming without knowing what a clade is? In
addition, familiarity with the relevant science is also important for evaluating the evidence for
some race theories. For example, Michael Hardimon and myself have used recent fuzzy genetic
clustering results from computer programs like Structure and Frappe as empirical evidence for the
existence of biologically real races in our species. In order to assess the quality of that evidence,
it’d help to be comfortable reading and critiquing the relevant population-genetic literature. Finally,
in order to fully understand important events in the history of scholarly race theory, some basic
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