David Smith discusses his book 'Less than Human' in an interview on Portland Community Television
Portland's Community Television Network recently taped an interview with David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy, who discussed his most recent book Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, on Sept. 28, 2011 at a Portland Public Library Brown Bag Lecture.
In the interview Smith explains that his book is the first serious study of dehumanization - how we attribute a non-human essence to a group of people to disable our moral inhibitions against committing acts of violence. Dehumanization, he explained, has allowed governments or other groups of people to commit atrocities such as the Holocaust, genocide in Rwanda, and the slave trade. Smith concluded that it is up to individuals and the media to be vigilant against dehumanizing rhetoric and propaganda that can lead to these atrocities.
Smith is also the author of The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War and Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind. He also recently discussed his book Less than Human on NPR's Talk of the Nation. Read more.