The Birth and Growth of the Future

FAIN: FB-13088-77

Dennis E. Roby
Ohlone College (Fremont, CA 94539-5847)

To study the ways in which the idea of the future has developed to the present day. PI contends that the future seems to be the conscious result of centuries of human thought. Using the historical approach, PI will investigate the concept of the future from its limited roots in the ancient world, through its enrichment and modification in such periods as the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, on up to the present, in a range of sources - primarily philosophic, religious, and literary. The goal is to describe accurately the ways in which the future has entered and developed in Western thought.