April 1, 2020

New Book by James E. Lassiter - From the Unknown into Uncertainty



by
James E. Lassiter
(2020)

To purchase this book click the image or title above, or here.

From the Unknown into Uncertainty is a compilation of my essays and commentaries from 2010 to the present. Most of the material is from my blogs, Facebook (before I jumped ship), and published articles. I revised or rewrote all of the original writings. Much of the material in the essays and commentaries is new. Some essays contain extracts from written communications I have had with a few of you - presented in the book anonymously, of course. Revisions include eliminating run-on sentences and unnecessary jargon, adverbs, and adjectives, curses of my speaking and writing style.


This book is not the breezy, catchy read I somewhere in my mind wish it was. There are breezy, sometimes funny passages in it. But it is really a thinker’s book, of sorts. Something to study, criticize, and learn from. It provokes thought and persuades a reconsideration of a person’s ideas and values. 

From the Introduction and Preface:

The origin, evolution, and future of our species is part of the process of change over time in the universe, one of billions of stories of matter and energy in motion - ever changing, ever responding, often unpredictable; sometimes successfully adaptive, sometimes not. Most important for humankind in this evolution of the universe’s matter and energy has been emergence and agency.

Evolutionary change defines and circumscribes certain contexts and options for all matter and life. The evolved contexts and options currently facing human beings arose from the origin and transformation of the universe, and the evolutionary history of Earth.

Ours is a story of where our ancestors came from, how they came into being, what has happened to them, and what their responses have been to the various contexts they were in and the occurrences they experienced. It is a story of the emergence of novel entities and processes including tool reliance and refinement, and human individual agency. Without these expressions of emergence and agency there would have been no humankind as we now know ourselves.

The human story is also a description of the implications of these contexts, options, and responses for our present and future survival or extinction. Without change, emergence, and agency there would be no possibility of humankind ever gaining control over the morality, direction, and fate of human civilization.

Our story is one of a deep and long connection with the universe, including Earth. Our understandings, interpretations, explanations, and depictions of that story have come and continue to come in many versions – mythic and secular, absolute and provisional, closed and open. Some versions of the story of humankind, more than others, are more consistent with and truthful to the contexts, options, and responses we arose from and those we now face; and more useful for surviving and flourishing in the contexts and options we will face in the future.

Through a series of essays and commentaries, this book presents a case for one version of humankind’s past, present and future – a truth that continues to evolve and increase in its explanatory power. A provisional truth that provides the foundation for what I and many others believe to have the greatest probability of finding a sustainable path toward a viable, prosperous and survivable future for ourselves and Earth. That truth is provided by science, humanism, and secularism.

~ ~ ~

As an independent scholar, rather than parroting the experts within and outside academia, though I read many of them deeply and respectfully, and rely on them, I don’t hesitate to occasionally disagree with them. I have tried my best to think as independently, critically, and objectively to the degree my learned biases and inherent subjectivity have allowed. The result of this approach is what’s in this book.

Archive for "Being Human"