Sunset Spotlight

Sunset Candidate Releases New Book

In 2006, Sunset District supervisor hopeful Ron Dudum lost by only 53 votes. It might be fitting to say that disappointments in local politics inspired him to write his first book, "Three Paradigms of Reality: from Homer to Einstein."

"Had I not lost the election for supervisor I probably would not have finished this book," Dudum said when the book debuted in October. "Actually, the book took me over 15 years to write and with the help of a really brilliantly precise editor I was able to get it done after three arduous drafts."

"My thoughts were there," he said, "I just needed some help to really get a clearer perspective." With the editor's help and a few extra courses of study, Dudum was able to sort through the collective knowledge and experiences of his life. He recognized that the traditional Western approach to philosophy had five periods, the ancient, medieval, modern, post-modern and contemporary.

But, in Dudum's view these five periods of philosophical history can be condensed into three.

"The history of Western philosophy sort of skips over the Byzantine period, which I think is crucial," Dudum said.

Born and raised in San Francisco by parents from Palestine, Dudum said his life has been a mixture of Eastern and Western cultures.

"Three Paradigms of Reality: from Homer to Einstein" is for sale at www.Amazon.com. For more information about the publication or Dudum, visit the Web site at www.threeparadigms.com.

- Jonathan Farrell