Evolution, History and Destiny: Letters to Alain Locke (1886-1954) and Others (Studies in Literary Criticism and Theory)

Presented in an epistolary form addressed mainly to the African American philosopher Alain Locke (1886-1954), evolution, history and destiny constitute the main themes of this book. Destiny, the controlling theme, is defined as an ideal of transcendent unity toward which a people strives in successive generations. Destiny includes four modalities: the ethnic, the national, the world, and the cosmic. Destiny is both immanent and transcendent, the one pertaining to the actual world, the other, to the ideal world. Part I focuses on the first three modalities, devoting special attention to the ethnic experiences of Africans/African Americans, their history, identity, and appellations, including �African American, � �Black, � �Negritude� and the novel appellation, �Africantude.� Although focusing on the experiences of Africans and African Americans, the destiny model is applicable to all people. Another novel term explored is �Destinicity, � a synthesis of both the destiny and ethnic ideals of a people. In Part II, the emphasis is on the collaborative works of the author and Dr. Manohar A. Tilak, a chemist. Here the cosmic mode, the physical-biological universe, is described as having undergone unique phases of evolution: robotic evolution is now occurring and will give rise to new artificial �beings� to which Destinicity ethics are applicable.