David Smith's 'Less than Human' recommended on the U of Chicago Law School website

Brian Leiter, Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence at The University of Chicago Law School, recommended David Livingstone Smith's latest book, Less than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, on the Law School's website in an annual column titled "What Are We Reading." Smith is a UNE associate professor of philosophy and religious studies.

"His book offers a gripping history of the horrific ways in which human beings have turned other humans into 'sub-humans' and 'beasts in human form,' from American rhetoric rationalizing African slavery, to the Nazi persecution of the Jews, to the justifications offered for the genocide in Rwanda.  He identifies a key thematic in all these campaigns of dehumanization: namely, convincing the persecutors that, when it comes to the persecuted, there is a difference between being essentially human and merely appearing human. He then speculates (not always plausibly, but provocatively nonetheless) that the propensity to draw an essence/appearance distinction is a legacy of natural selection itself.  One need not find the evolutionary speculation convincing to nonetheless find his synthesis of the ways in which the essence/appearance distinction figures in the rhetoric of hatred and genocide throughout history insightful and memorable."

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.