The name of my latest book is “Angst and Evolution:  The Struggle for Human Potential”  I am often asked what my book is about. I think perhaps the best way for readers unfamiliar with my philosophies to get an idea of what the book is about is simply to try a free sample.

Please enjoy this tasty teaser from the first chapter of my book!

Chapter 1: The Human Dilemma

“Seen in retrospect, evolution as a whole doubtless had a general direction, from simple to complex, from dependence on to relative independence of the environment, to greater and greater autonomy of individuals, greater and greater development of sense organs and nervous systems conveying and processing information about the state of the organism’s surroundings, and finally greater and greater consciousness. You can call this direction progress or by some other name.”
THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY

LIFE. WHAT IS IT? Where did it come from? What does it mean? One need merely pause and reflect to realize that, whatever it turns out to be, for now life is still a mystery. Possibly the most helpful clue to the puzzle in recent history is the theory of evolution. If the theory holds true, and at this point all indicators suggest that, generally, it is sound, then each living being is a receptacle and reflection of three and a half billion years of experience, a manifestation of all that came before it as well as a gauge on the possibilities lying in the beyond. It is a “Grand Experiment;” one in which all
of creation, past and present, participates. Humans, it seems, now find themselves in the position of evaluating the results of the experiment so far.

For the human animal, with its ability to snatch experience from the flow of time, abstract it into language and art, and share it with other members of the species in order to affect and confront the environment, the present moment is a testament to the reality of duration. How else to explain the emergence of countless species of living organisms? Life endures, along with the artifacts of human history literature, technology, art and architecture. Duration, in turn, proves invaluable in gauging the accuracy of evolutionary theory. These two phenomena, duration and evolution, are the impetus from which the following inquiry begins. However, in order to realize a fact-based probability concerning the authentication of the experiment to this point in time, the focus of the study will be narrowed to the concepts of evil and the unfolding of potential. Recognition of evil sparks many a thought about the nature of life. The unfolding of potential, one might argue, is the essence of biological life. The choice to focus in this way stems from the hope that a study of that which appears to be against life (evil) may very well shed light on the potential it strives to destroy.

To read more buy Angst and Evolution: The Struggle for Human Potential