This book analyses how and why we are living at a critical moment in the history of human life on earth and explores how we find grounds for the hopes that will enable us to address the challenges and crises of our time. The author analyses hope both practically and philosophically as a generative virtue to realistically discern the situations in which we find ourselves, and imaginatively to anticipate possibilities when the future is unknown and uncertain. The author argues that hope is a mean between anomy, disillusionment, and despair, on the one hand, and wishful thinking, dreaming, and fanaticizing, on the other hand. The book not only examines – and analyzes from a historical perspective - the contemporary crises such as climate change, environmental degradation and its effects such as the social costs of these developments, but also further analyzes the character and micro-dynamics of hope and how it makes a difference in how we manage the crises which inevitably emerge. Though contemporary crises are those we tend to focus on, the author also engages with what is involved in a due regard for history and the relevance of a sense of history for addressing the crises of our time. He shows us what we can learn from revisiting some thoughtful reflections by thinkers like Niebuhr, Jaspers, Camus, and Arendt. Finally, the author shows us what is involved practically in anticipating possibilities, by looking at hope as a social practice and noting how hopeful people make a difference.
Author(s): Frederick Bird
Series: Library of Public Policy and Public Administration, 17
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 303
City: Cham
Contents
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Can You Give Us Good Reasons to Hope?
Works Cited
Chapter 2: A Critical Moment
2.1 The Best of Times and the Worst of Times
2.2 A Critical Moment in the History of Human Life on Earth
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Part II: The Generative Power of Hope
Chapter 3: The Virtue of Hope
3.1 Hope as a Virtue
3.2 Micro-dynamics of Hope
Works Cited
Chapter 4: Cultivating Hope
4.1 Personal Perspectives on the Cultivation of Hope
4.2 Social Perspectives on the Cultivation of Hope
4.3 Faith, Hope, and Love
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Chapter 5: Habits of Hoping
5.1 Variations in the Strength of Our Hoping
5.2 Good Reasons for “Hope” Typically Engender Not Hopefulness but Confidence
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Chapter 6: The Social Practice of Hoping
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Chapter 7: Hope Makes a Difference
7.1 Ethical Imperatives and Hope
7.2 Historical Examples
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Part III: Learning from History
Chapter 8: The Critical Value of a Due Regard for History
8.1 What a Due Regard for History Entails
8.2 Benefits We Gain from Cultivating a Due Regard for History
Works Cited
Chapter 9: After the Fall: Mid-Twentieth Century Reflections on the Crises of Those Times
9.1 Introduction: Reflections After Two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Death Camps, the Beginnings of the End of the Great Age of Imperialism, and the Dropping of the First Nuclear Bombs
9.2 Karl Jaspers: The Origin and Goal of History
9.3 Albert Camus: The Rebel (1951)
9.4 Hannah Arendt: The Burden of Our Time (1951)
9.5 Conclusion: Learning from These Mid-Twentieth Century Reflections
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Part IV: The Crises of Our Times
Chapter 10: Scrutinizing the Signs of the Times
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Chapter 11: Humans as Creatures, Cultivators, and Exploiters of the Earth and Its Resources
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Chapter 12: The Rise of Science and Reason and Their Contemporary Discontents
12.1 The Current Situation
12.2 Causes of Discontent
12.3 Possibilities for Addressing and Reducing Feelings of Discontent
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Chapter 13: Increases in Productivity and Their Ambiguous Consequences
13.1 Increases in Productivity, Fittingly Understood
13.2 Ambiguous Developments
13.3 Exploring Several Underlying Causes for These Ambiguous Developments
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Chapter 14: The Political Prospects and Burdens of Our Times
14.1 Constructive Political Developments
14.2 Current Political Challenges
14.3 Politics and Rumors of Politics
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Chapter 15: The Fulfilling and Elusive Pursuits of Happiness and Love
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Chapter 16: Further Reflections on the Signs of Our Times
16.1 Why Do We Despair in Desperate Times?
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Chapter 17: Conclusion: Carpe Diem
17.1 Grounds for Hope
17.2 Hopeful People Make a Difference
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Afterword
Appendices
Appendix 1: Further Thoughts on the Critical Value of a Due Regard for History
Addressing Challenges Inherent in Historical Consciousness
Appendix 2: After the Fall, Part Two: Mid-Twentieth Century Reflections by Mircea Eliade and Reinhold Niebuhr
Mircea Eliade: Cosmos and History
Reinhold Niebuhr: Faith and History
Notes
Works Cited
Index
