Abstract
What if it doesn't get better? Against more hopeful and optimistic views that it is not just ideal but possible to put an end to what John Rawls calls “the great evils of human history,” I aver that when it comes to evils caused by human beings, the situation is hopeless. We are better off with the heavy knowledge that evils recur than we are with idealizations of progress, perfection, and completeness; an appropriate ethic for living with such heavy knowledge could include resisting evils, improving the lives of victims, and even enjoying ourselves. Better conceptions of the objects of hope, and the good life, inform a praxis‐centered, nonideal, feminist ethic, supportive of sustained moral motivation, resilience, and even cheer. I connect elements of stoic and pessimistic philosophy in order to outline some normative recommendations for living with evils. A praxis‐centered ethic would helpfully adjust our expectations from changing an uncontrollable future to developing better skills for living in a world that exceeds our control. As Aldo Leopold once said, “That the situation is hopeless should not prevent us from doing our best.”
Highlights
Against more hopeful and optimistic views that it is not just ideal but possible to put an end to what John Rawls calls “the great evils of human history,” I aver that when it comes to evils caused by human beings, the situation is hopeless
With the fictional character who voices the second epigraph above, I take it to be evident that the great evils of the past thousand years are well on their way to being instantiated again in this millennium
I argue against hopeful progressivism with respect to great evils, and conclude that better conceptions of the objects of hope, and the good life, informed by feminist insights, contribute to an ethic supportive of sustained moral motivation, resilience, and even cheer
Summary
Some hope is inevitable in a creature with a will. If one can conceive of a future, and imagine more than one possibility coming to be, one will unavoidably prefer and come to actively desire some possibilities more than others, and imagine how one can contribute to their realization. We can cultivate hope as an attitude, informing it with narratives about moral progress, political civilization, the desirability of perfection or personal improvement. The history of modern philosophy is populated by remarkably hopeful authors endorsing progressive varieties of such attitudes with respect to evils. I intend pessimism to mean rather the negation of what Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to in the course of explaining his optimism He wrote, to those surprised at his continued hopes in the face of his regular sufferings, jailings, and encounters with wicked oppressors, “It is possible for me to falter, but I am profoundly secure in my knowledge that God loves us; he has not worked out a design for our failure. It is my contention that ideal theory is one of those comforting narratives
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