David Livingstone Smith

David Livingstone Smith is a professor of philosophy at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. He earned his PhD from the University of London, Kings College, where he worked on Freud’s philosophy of mind and psychology. His current research is focused on dehumanisation, race, propaganda, and related topics. He is the author of seven books and numerous academic papers. His most recent book Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others (St Martin’s Press, 2011) was awarded the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf award for non-fiction. He is also editor of How Biology Shapes Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2017), and he is working on a book entitled Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization, which will be published by Harvard University Press.

David speaks widely in both academic and non-academic settings, and his work has been featured extensively in national and international media. In 2012 he spoke at the G20 summit on dehumanisation and mass violence. David strongly believes that the practice of philosophy has an important role to play helping us meet the challenges confronting humanity in the 21st century and beyond, and that philosophers should work towards making the world a better place.