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Work #1308 · Late

Where Do We Go from Here

Martin Luther King Jr.
1967 · English
Political-philosophical analysis · African-American intellectual tradition / Civil Rights Movement

MLK's 1967 late work — political-philosophical analysis of late Civil Rights Movement

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Where Do We Go from Here (Late)
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Finite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Non-Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Non-Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Revelation
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Discrete

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Where Do We Go from Here

1967, post-Civil-Rights-Act and Voting-Rights-Act, mid-Vietnam-War, post-Watts and pre-King-assassination political-cultural moment.

Space

Where Do We Go from Here

American and increasingly international context; King engaging Black Power movement nationally and the Vietnam War globally.

Matter

Where Do We Go from Here

Civil Rights Movement evolution, Black-Power critique, Vietnam War, poverty and economic inequality, the structure of American political community.

Observer

Where Do We Go from Here

Late King as political-philosophical-religious leader, evolved from earlier reformist-integrationist toward democratic-socialist-internationalist analysis.

Energy

Where Do We Go from Here

Prophetic-political, structural-critical, democratic-socialist, increasingly internationalist energies.

Information

Where Do We Go from Here

Systematic ten-chapter political-philosophical analysis; mixes movement-history narrative, structural-economic critique, and Christian-prophetic moral argument.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Where Do We Go from Here

Where Do We Go has been variously assessed. King's democratic-socialist, anti-Vietnam, and economic-justice positions made the book controversial in mainstream-establishment circles in 1967 and were largely effaced in subsequent King-memorialisation. The post-1990s historiographical recovery of 'the radical King' (Cornel West, Vincent Harding, Michael Eric Dyson, Peniel Joseph) restored Where Do We Go to centrality. The book is now standard in African-American-studies and political-theology curricula.