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Headshot of David Livingstone Smith

David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D.

he/him

Professor

Location

Marcil Hall 311

David is an award-winning author with ten books to his credit. His 2011 Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others won the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf award for nonfiction.  On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It was published by Oxford University Press in 2020, and his tenth book, Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization, published by Harvard University Press in 2021, was a finalist for the Nayaf Al-Rodhan Prize for Transdisciplinary Philosophy. Most recently, he was awarded the Joseph B. Gittler Prize for  outstanding scholarly contribution in the field of the philosophy of one or more of the social sciences, and the Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for Philosophical Achievement and Contribution.

David was described in the Times Literary Supplement as 鈥渁 philosopher seeking not just to interpret the world but to change it." His book On Inhumanity is praised by Harvard University philosopher Cornel West, as 鈥渁 philosophically sophisticated and prophetically courageous treatment of dehumanization, especially in regard to race,鈥 and by Yale University historian Timothy Snyder as 鈥渇irm but gentle, wise but accessible.鈥 and University of Pennsylvania law professor Dorothy Roberts says that 鈥淥n Inhumanity brilliantly provides a chilling warning of repeating the past and a hopeful call to create a more humane future," and science journalist Angela Saini calls it "A chilling, comprehensive and passionate account of dehumanization,鈥 and adds that 鈥淪mith 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 not only by other philosophers, but also by historians, legal scholars, psychologists, and anthropologists. He has been featured in prime-time television documentaries, is often interviewed and cited in the national and international media, and was a guest at the 2012 G20 economic summit.

 

Credentials

Education

Ph.D.
University of London, Kings College

Research

Current research

Self-deception, dehumanization, human nature, ideology, race.

Selected publications

Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.

How Biology Shapes Philosophy: New Foundations for Naturalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017

Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others.  New York: St. Martins Press, 2011.

鈥楶aradoxes of dehumanization,鈥 Social Theory and Practice 42(2): 416-433, 2015.

Other scholarly activity

Winner of 2012 Anisfield-Wolf award for non-fiction.

Sepeaker at 2012 G20 Economic Summit.

Invited plenary presentation

鈥楬ow ideologies get their functions,鈥 American Philosophical Association Pacific Division, annual conference [2018].

鈥楥onsuming authoritarianism,鈥 American Philosophical Association Eastern Division, annual conference [January 4, 2018].

鈥楢nthropology, race, and dehumanization,鈥 Black 51小黄车, University of New Hampshire [October 21, 2017]

鈥楶aradoxes of dehumanization,鈥 University of Virginia, Department of Political Science [April 28, 2017].

鈥楲ess than human, lesser human, or defectively human?鈥 Sidore Lecture, University of New Hampshire [March 7, 2017].

鈥楬ow dehumanization works,鈥 Salem State University [Feb 22, 2017].

鈥楾he politics of salvation,鈥 presentation at conference on 鈥楶hilosophy after Trump,鈥 University of Pennsylvania [February 3, 2017].

鈥楳aking monsters,鈥 Pomona College, Dept. of Philosophy, [January 20, 2017].

鈥楾he politics of salvation: ideology, propaganda, and race in Trump鈥檚 America,鈥 University of California, Riverside, Dept. of Philosophy [January 19, 2017].

Panel on combatting dehumanization, Inamori Center for Ethics and Excellence, Case Western Reserve University [October 27, 2016].

鈥楳aking monsters: the uncanny power of dehumanization,鈥 Inamori Center, Case Western Reserve University [October 28, 2016].

鈥楿nderstanding dehumanization,鈥 Tufts University Medical Center, Grand Rounds [September 20, 2016].

Research interests

Dehumanization, ideology, race.

Research topics

Dehuminization
Human Nature
Philosophy
Philosophy of Science