Radical Hope

Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation

Jonathan Lear

    I. After This, Nothing Happened

    A Peculiar Vulnerability

    Protecting a Way of Life

    Gambling with Necessity

    Was There a Last Coup?

    Witness to Death

    Subject to Death

    The Possibility of Crow Poetry

    II. Ethics at the Horizon

    The End of Practical Reason

    Reasoning at the Abyss

    A Problem for Moral Psychology

    The Interpretation of Dreams

    Crow Anxiety

    The Virtue of the Chickadee

    The Transformation of Psychological Structure

    Radical Hope

    III. Critique of Abysmal Reasoning

    The Legitimacy of Radical Hope

    Aristotle's Method

    Radical Hope versus Mere Optimism

    Courage and Hope

    Virtue and Imagination

    Historical Vindication

    Personal Vindication

    Response to Sitting Bull

    Notes

    Acknowledgments

    Index

  • Cover: Radical Hope
  • A photo of the author

Jonathan Lear is John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the Committee on Social Thought and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago.