David Livingstone Smith, author of Why We Lie and The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, discusses the competing narratives of war, the human “taste” for mass killing and the conflicting aversion to hurting others, the similarities in the ways in which chimpanzees and people wage war and the danger of the collectivist mindset.
MP3 here. (16:10)
David Livingstone Smith teaches philosophy at the University of New England. He 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. David’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 most recent book The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War was published by St. Martins Press in 2007.
