David Livingstone Smith quoted in ‘Common Space’ article about international responses to refugee suffering
David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, was quoted in James McEnaney’s article, "The guilty silence which leaves blood on all our hands," published recently in the Scottish online news magazine Common Space.
The article discusses the lack of international response to the plight of the world’s 50 million refugees and asylum seekers. It also suggests that Westerners’ response to the suffering of refugees is proportional to how similar those who are suffering look like them, offering the West’s different responses to crises in Rwanda and Bosnia, as examples.
McEnaney references Smith’s book The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, quoting the statement that "we feel that people who resemble us are more valuable than those who do not."