Walter Truett Anderson facts for kids

Walter Truett Anderson (born February 27, 1933) is an American political scientist, a social psychologist, and an author. He has written many non-fiction books and articles for newspapers and magazines.

Walter Anderson often talks about big ideas in his lectures. He believes that any advanced species in the universe must go through two major changes. First, they must take full responsibility for the future of all life on their planet. Second, they need to understand that their ways of communicating, like language and math, don't just describe reality. Instead, they actually help create it.

Much of his writing explores these two ideas about how things change and grow over time. His book To Govern Evolution focuses on humans taking charge of Earth's life systems. He also wrote Evolution Isn’t What It Used To Be and All Connected Now, which continue these thoughts.

His books Reality Isn’t What It Used to Be and The Truth About the Truth explore the idea that our understanding of reality is shaped by our communication. This is called constructivism. In The Future of the Self, he looked at how people build their identities in today's global world. The Next Enlightenment shows how Western ideas about reality are similar to Eastern spiritual traditions like Buddhism.

Currently, Walter Anderson is the President Emeritus of the World Academy of Art and Science. He was president from 2000 to 2008. He is also a founding Fellow of the Meridian International Institute and a Fellow of the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California. He is a Distinguished Consulting Faculty member at Saybrook University in San Francisco.

The author Mark Satin describes Walter Anderson as a radical centrist thinker in his book Radical Middle. This means Anderson has ideas that combine different political views.

Walter Anderson's Life Story

Walter Anderson grew up on his family's cattle ranch in northeastern Nevada. He has also lived and worked in other countries like Germany, Spain, and England. He studied political science at the University of California, Berkeley.

After serving in the military and working in magazine journalism, he went back to school. He earned a doctorate in political science and social psychology from the University of Southern California.

For most of his life, he has worked as an independent author, speaker, and consultant. He has also taught part-time at several universities. These include the University of California, Berkeley, and Saybrook University.

In the 1980s and 90s, he wrote many opinion pieces for newspapers. He also wrote investigative stories for Pacific News Service in San Francisco. He is on the editorial boards of several academic journals. These include The Journal of Humanistic Psychology and Futures: The Journal of Policy, Planning, and Futures Studies.

Walter Anderson is divorced and has one son, Daniel Griffith Anderson. Daniel is a geneticist who teaches at MIT. Walter also has two granddaughters. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Books by Walter Anderson

• (2003) The Next Enlightenment: Integrating East and West in a New Vision of Human Evolution. This book looks at how Eastern and Western ideas can come together.
• (2001, 2004) All Connected Now: Life in the First Global Civilization. This book explores how connected our world has become.
• (1997) The Future of the Self: Inventing the Postmodern Person. This book discusses how people create their identities today.
• (1996) Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World. This book talks about how humans and technology are changing.
• (1995) Ed. The Truth About the Truth: De-confusing and Re-constructing the Postmodern World. This book is a collection of writings about understanding reality.
• (1990, 1991) Reality Isn’t What It Used To Be: Theatrical Politics, Ready-to-Wear Religion, Global Myths, Primitive Chic, and Other Wonders of the Postmodern World. This book explores how our understanding of reality is shaped.
• (1987) To Govern Evolution: Further Adventures of the Political Animal. This book discusses humans' role in guiding evolution.
• (1983, 1984) The Upstart Spring: Esalen and the American Awakening. This book is about the Esalen Institute and the human potential movement.
• (1983) Ed. Rethinking Liberalism. This book is a collection of essays about rethinking political ideas.
• (1979) Open Secrets: A Western Guide to Tibetan Buddhism. This book introduces Tibetan Buddhism to Western readers.
• (1977) Ed. Therapy and the Arts: Tools of Consciousness. This book is a collection about therapy and art.
• (1976) A Place of Power: The American Episode in Human Evolution. This book looks at American natural history and human evolution.