Susan Oyama (born May 22, 1943)[1] is a psychologist and philosopher of science, currently professor emerita at the John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.[2]
Oyama's work interrogates the nature versus nurture debates, and problematizes the conceptual foundations (e.g., assumptions, binaries, and classifications) on which these debates depend. Her notion of a "developmental system" allows us to reevaluate and reintegrate standard dichotomies such as development and evolution, body and mind, and stasis and change. Oyama's Developmental systems theory has had a significant impact in cognitive science, psychology, and the philosophy of biology.
