article_title birth_date occupation nationality
walter truett anderson
 27 february 1933 political scientist , social psychologist american
walter truett anderson

walter truett anderson -lrb- born february 27 , 1933 -rrb- is a political scientist , social psychologist , and author of numerous non-fiction books and articles in newspapers and magazines .
in his public lectures , he frequently speculates that , if we had a history of every advanced species in the universe , we would find that they all had to pass through two large , difficult and unavoidable transitions : -lrb- 1 -rrb- accepting conscious responsibility for the future of all life on their planets , and -lrb- 2 -rrb- recognizing that their systems of symbolic communication -- such as language and mathematics -- do n't merely describe reality , but participate in creating it .
most of his major writing efforts have engaged one or both of these evolutionary themes .
his defining statement on the first was `` to govern evolution : further adventures of the political animal '' .
its vision of human impacts on earth 's life systems had been foreshadowed in his earlier book on american natural history , `` a place of power : the american episode in human evolution '' , and was further developed in `` evolution is n't what it used to be '' and `` all connected now '' .
he is now at work on a new book that explores the evolutionary challenges and frontiers of the 21st century .
his major statements on the second -lrb- constructivist -rrb- theme were `` reality is n't what it used to be '' and the subsequent anthology `` the truth about the truth . ''
in other books on related subjects , `` the future of the self '' described changing ways that people are constructing personal identities in contemporary global society , and `` the next enlightenment '' points out the similarities between western constructivist thought and eastern spiritual traditions such as buddhism .
he is currently president emeritus of the world academy of art and science -lrb- having served as president 2000-2008 -rrb- ; a founding fellow of the meridian international institute ; a fellow of the western behavioral sciences institute -lrb- lajolla , ca -rrb- ; and a distinguished consulting faculty member of saybrook university in san francisco .
in his book `` radical middle '' , author mark satin characterizes anderson as a radical centrist thinker .
