A Philosopher’s Biology: Subrena Smith | GP Interview #21
This is the twenty-first in a series of interviews with explorers, thinkers, artists, activists and other luminaries around the world, people whose life’s work resonates with our founding principles.
Our friend Subrena Smith is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of New Hampshire, specializing in our philosophical understandings of biology and how these understandings impact social structures and political discourse.
Subrena has a joy in interrogating many sacred cows and encourages her students to reframe popular discourse in areas of race, politics and decision making.
In her recent article “Is Evolutionary Psychology Possible?” Subrena argues that our understandings of present-day psychological behaviors are methodologically unsound.
GP: What are the pros and cons of the tight taxonomies of identity we’ve created in the United States? What are the filters that do and don’t serve us well?
SS: Biology is the filter through which we think about ourselves and each other in particular, and the living world more generally. Biology is seen as setting the parameters for what is possible for us. It is supposed to tell us who we are as sexual beings, and consequentially what genders we have and therefore the roles we should have in…
