Changing Philosophy, One Student at a Time

It's always great to get compliments from readers, particularly from especially intelligent, open-minded students who actually “get” what univironmental determinism is all about:

Anon writes:

I'm almost finished reading through your magnificent book, and wow! What an amazing work you have done. I'm an aspiring philosopher that is about halfway through undergrad, and I found your book just as I was becoming interested by the indeterminist ideas such as Whitehead's process philosophy which objectified motion, but your book turned me completely away from these notions. Learning about scientific assumptions has caused me to reconsider much of my notions of science due to the realization that my own basic assumptions were simply incoherent and not consupponible.  I'm quite grateful for your work on this book, and hope to apply the method of univironmental determinism and use the Ten Assumptions in my future college works and beyond. I have recommended TSW to friends and am looking forward to reading Universal Cycle Theory in the coming months.

Regards,

Anon (name withheld by request)

This is one of the main reasons I wrote TSW. Throughout the writing process, I read at least parts of over 500 books and papers, looking for the book that I ended up writing myself. Coincidentally like Anon, I also had been assigned Whitehead (“Science and the Modern World”) as extra reading (in a soils course, no less). It was to be my only brush with formal philosophy in my 9 years of college. Good thing we never discussed it or were tested on it, because it did not make any sense to me. Good thing philosophy was not required for the “Doctor of Philosophy" degree. With the mishmashed philosophy being taught at university one was likely to end up either hopelessly confused or nicely prepared to accept all the paradoxes and contradictions that indeterminism wishes to throw at you.

That is why it is so wonderful to see the progress made by Anon in such a short time. Anon’s story embodies what books are all about. It took me 7 years to write TSW, and Anon got the whole point in a few months. The excitement of discovering univironmental determinism and using it to solve problems that had been vexing me for decades was paramount. To see others getting a jump-start on applying it is icing on the cake.