University of New England

UNE scholar David Livingstone Smith to discuss evolutionary roots of war and genocide Nov. 30th

University of New England author David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., will speak on "The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War" at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov 30, 2006 in the St. Francis Room, Ketchum Library, University Campus, Biddeford.

The lecture is sponsored by the UNE New England Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology. It is free and open to the public.

Background
Smith, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, notes that war is a uniquely human activity, a recurring nightmare from which humanity seems to be unable to awaken.  Humans have poured energy into the project of slaughtering our fellow human beings for at least the last ten thousand years, and probably much longer.  As technology advanced, we became ever more dangerous to one another. In the last century, war took the lives of over 87 million people, of which 60 percent - around 54 million - were noncombatants. 

In this presentation Smith will explore  the evolutionary and psychological roots of war and genocide, with a view towards identifying what it is about human nature that makes it possible for us to treat our fellow human beings with such extraordinary brutality.

He will argue that our penchant for war is a product of  evolution and is deeply embedded in our human nature.  However, killing does not come easily to us: our lethal ferocity towards members of our own species is matched by equally powerful inhibitions against killing that are also part of our evolutionary heritage.  In taking the lives of others, we also do violence to ourselves. 

Smith says that as a result, psychiatric disorders are common among soldiers.  In order to go to war, we must find a way to overcome our natural reluctance to kill members of our own species. In a remarkable act of self-deception, we activate psychological systems originally evolved to deal with non-human dangers in a prehistoric environment, viewing 'the enemy' not as a real human being, but as a predator, prey or a vector of disease.  This presentation will be accompanied by illustrations, some of which may be disturbing.

The lecture is based upon Smith's research for his upcoming book The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War,  which will be published by St. Martins Press in 2007. 

In an advance review of the book,  David P. Barash, professor of psychology, University of Washington and author of Madame Bovary's Ovaries: a Darwinian Look at Literature, Understanding Violence and Approaches to Peace, wrote:

"If you have the intestinal fortitude to confront the horrors of war, as well as the intellectual fortitude to confront its basis in human nature, then you are ready for The Most Dangerous Animal.  David Livingstone Smith knows evolutionary biology, and history,and psychology, and philosophy, and anthropology, and has put them together to produce a riveting, unflinching and disturbingly accurate account of human warfare, from the 'commanded wars' of the Old Testament to Bush's Blunder in Iraq."

In a second advance review, Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skepticmagazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, author of The Science of Good and Evil and Why Darwin Matters, wrote:

"This is the most important post-9/11 analysis of war and it comes none too soon, as hundreds are daily dying and commentators continue to ask why. David Livingstone Smith has provided a cogent answer to the deeper why question of war; not why Iraq? or why Afganistan? or why Darfur?, but why war at all? Smith's answer--that war is buried deep in our evolutionary past--will be controversial, but his case is irrefutable. We have seen the enemy in the mirror, and until we gather the courage to accept our true nature, men will fight and people will die."

And Andrew J. Bacevich, professor of international relations and history at Boston University and author of The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War,  American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U. S. Diplomacy and The Imperial Tense: Problems and Prospects of American Empire wrote:

"In The Most Dangerous Animal, David Livingstone Smith illuminates an exceedingly dark subject:  humankind's deep-seated penchant for war.  The result is a discerning, insightful, highly original, and very disturbing book."

David Livingstone Smith
Smith earned his M.A. from Antioch University and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of London, Kings College, where he worked on topics in the philosophy of mind and psychology.  In addition to The Most Dangerous Animal, Smith's books include Freud's Philosophy of the Unconscious (Kluwer, 1999), Approaching Psychoanalysis: An Introductory Course (Karnac, 1999), Psychoanalysis in Focus (Sage, 2002) and, most recently Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind (St. Martins Press, 2004). 

His current research interests include deception and self-deception, the evolutionary psychology of war, incest and incest-avoidance and various aspects of analytical philosophy.  He lives in Portland, Maine.

(Press release issued June 8, 2006)