New York Times Book Review publishes letter from David Smith

The New York Times Book Review on March 20, 2011 published a letter by Associate Professor of Philosophy David Livingstone Smith, whose new book, Less than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, was reviewed by David Berreby in the New York Times Book Review on Sunday March 6th. 

In the letter, Smith called attention to "three serious misrepresentations" in Berreby’s review. "First, Berreby confuses the idea of thinking logically about dehumanization with the notion that the phenomenon of dehumanization involves logical thinking. In addition, he confuses my claim that the subhuman condition is thought of as unalterable with the very different — and quite implausible — notion that people never alter their ideas about the subhuman condition. Finally, he apparently fails to grasp my overarching point that when we dehumanize others we think of them as less than human in a specifically moral sense."

Smith is the author of several books, including Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind and The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War. Find out more about Smith and Less than Human.