David Livingstone Smith

David Livingstone Smith

Current Research

  • Self-Deception
  • Dehumanisation
  • Human Nature
  • Ideology
  • Race

About Smith

David has written or edited ten books. His 2011 Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others won the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf award for nonfiction. David’s book On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist Oxford University Press, published in 2020. His tenth book, Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization, was published by Harvard University Press in 2021.

In the Times Literary Supplement, David was described as “a philosopher seeking not just to interpret the world but to change it.” Harvard University philosopher Cornel West praises his book On Inhumanity as “a philosophically sophisticated and prophetically courageous treatment of dehumanization, especially regarding race.” At Yale University, the historian Timothy Snyder calls it “firm but gentle, wise but accessible.” The University of Pennsylvania law professor Dorothy Roberts says that “On Inhumanity brilliantly provides a chilling warning of repeating the past and a hopeful call to create a more humane future.” Science journalist Angela Saini calls it “A chilling, comprehensive and passionate account of dehumanization” and adds that “Smith offers a devastating reminder of the capacity of every human to treat other humans as lesser.”

David is an interdisciplinary scholar whose publications are cited by other philosophers and historians, legal scholars, psychologists, and anthropologists. He has been featured in prime-time television documentaries, is often interviewed and quoted in the national and international media, and was a guest at the 2012 G20 economic summit.

Publications

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  1. Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  2. On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
  3. How Biology Shapes Philosophy: New Foundations for Naturalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017
  4. Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others. New York: St. Martins Press, 2011.
  5. ‘Paradoxes of dehumanisation,’ Social Theory and Practice 42(2): 416-433, 2015.

OTHER SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY

  • Winner of the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf award for non-fiction.
  • Speaker at 2012 G20 Economic Summit

INVITED PLENARY PRESENTATION

  1. ‘How ideologies get their functions,’ American Philosophical Association Pacific Division, annual conference [2018].
  2. ‘Consuming authoritarianism,’ American Philosophical Association Eastern Division, annual conference [January 4, 2018].
  3. ‘Anthropology, race, and dehumanisation,’ Black New England, University of New Hampshire [October 21, 2017]
  4. ‘Paradoxes of dehumanisation,’ the University of Virginia, Department of Political Science [April 28, 2017].
  5. ‘Less than human, lesser human, or defectively human?’ Sidore Lecture, University of New Hampshire [March 7, 2017].
  6. Salem State University [February 22, 2017].
  7. ‘The politics of salvation,’ presentation at the conference on ‘Philosophy after Trump,’ University of Pennsylvania, February 3ry 3, 2017].
  8. ‘Making monsters,’ Pomona College, Dept. of Philosophy, January 20y 20, 2017.
  9. ‘The politics of salvation: ideology, propaganda, and race in Trump’s America,’ University of California, Riverside, Dept. of PhilosopJanuary 19y 19, 2017].
  10. Panel on combatting dehumanisation, Inamori Center for Ethics and Excellence, Case Western Reserve UniversiOctober 27r 27, 2016].
  11. ‘Making monsters: the uncanny power of dehumanisation,’ Inamori Center, Case Western Reserve UniversiOctober 28r 28, 2016].
  12. ‘Understanding dehumanisation,’ Tufts University Medical Center, Grand RounSeptember 20r 20, 2016].