UNE’s David Livingstone Smith earns prestigious award for contributions to philosophy discourse

David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., professor of philosophy and 2023-24 Ludcke Chair of Arts and Sciences, was recently awarded the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize for philosophical achievement and contribution from the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the American Philosophical Association (APA). 

The prestigious award is presented annually to a pair of philosophers who hold contrasting, though not necessarily opposing, views of an important philosophical question that is of current interest both to the field and to an educated public audience. 

Winners of the award present their views and engage in a discussion at an annual Lebowitz symposium, held during the association’s divisional meeting, and in an episode of the podcast “Key Conversations with Phi Beta Kappa.”

"It is a tremendous honor to have my contributions to philosophy recognized in this way by Phi Beta Kappa and the American Philosophical Association,” Smith remarked.

He has published 10 books, including “Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others,” which won the 2012 Anisfield-Wolf award for nonfiction. His most recent book “Making Monsters: The Uncanny Power of Dehumanization,” was a finalist for the 2023 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Interdisciplinary Philosophy and was awarded the 2023 Joseph B. Gittler Award from the APA.

Smith is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work is cited by philosophers, historians, legal scholars, psychologists, and anthropologists. He is often interviewed and cited in the national and international media. He has also been featured in prime-time television documentaries and was a guest at the 2012 G20 economic summit.

His expertise in philosophy addresses the inextricable links between racism, dehumanization, and brutality. Most recently, he has been featured in The Atlantic, Public Random House Canada, and Asian Lite International.