David Smith to speak at conference on evolution of violence

David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy, will speak at an interdisciplinary conference on the evolution of violence. The conference, which will take place at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, on April 10, 2012, will be hosted by Oakland University Department of Psychology and Center for Social and Behavioral Research.

The goals of the conference are to enhance the understanding of the causes and consequences of violence and to acknowledge the importance of and promote engagement in interdisciplinary collaboration.

Smith is one of 13 scholars who will share their work on violence.  He is the author of many publications including the article, ‘War, evolution, and the nature of human nature,’ in the soon-to-be released Oxford Companion to Evolutionary Approaches to War and Violence by the Oxford University Press, as well as the book Less Than Human:  Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others by St. Martins Press.  He has given a plethora of presentations at distinguished institutions such as the Northern New England Philosophical Association; Carnegie Mellon University; University of Leiden, Netherlands; Bowdoin College; and MIT.