Susan Oyama

Susan Oyama (born May 22, 1943) is a psychologist and philosopher of science, currently professor emerita at the John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.

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.

Publications

 * The Ontogeny of Information (2000)
 * Cycles of Contingency (2001)
 * Evolution's Eye: A Systems View of the Biology-Culture Divide (2000)
 * The Ontogeny of Information: Developmental Systems and Evolution is regarded as a foundational text in developmental systems theory