Hopeful Pessimism

Mara van der Lugt, Editorial Assistant Josh Drake

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Hardback

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English

Princeton University Pres
01 June 2025

Philosophy; Philosophy of mind; Ethics & moral philosophy; Social & political philosophy; Psychology: emotions

Why 'hopeful pessimism' is not a contradiction in terms but a powerful source of moral and political commitment

The climate debate is rife with calls for optimism. While temperatures rise and disasters intensify, we are asked to maintain optimism and hope, as if the real threat is pessimism and despair. In this erudite and engaging book, Mara van der Lugt argues that this is a mistake: crude optimism can no longer be a virtue in a breaking world, and may well prove to be our besetting vice. In an age of climate change and ecological devastation, the virtue we need is hopeful pessimism.

Drawing on thinkers that range from J. R. R. Tolkien and Mary Shelley to Albert Camus and Jonathan Lear, van der Lugt invites us to rethink what we thought we knew about optimism and pessimism, hope and despair, activism and grief. She shows that pessimism is closely linked to a tradition of moral and political activism, and offers a different way to think about pessimism: not as synonymous with despair but as compatible with hope. Gently yet fiercely, van der Lugt argues that what we need to avoid is not pessimism but fatalism or self-serving resignation. Pessimism does not imply the loss of courage or the lack of a desire to strive for a better world; on the contrary, these are the very gifts that pessimism can bestow.

What Hopeful Pessimism asks instead is that we strive for change without certainties, without expecting anything from our efforts other than the knowledge that we have done what we are called upon to do as moral agents in a time of change.

By: Mara van der Lugt
Edited by: Editorial Assistant Josh Drake
Imprint: Princeton University Pres
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm,
ISBN: 9780691265605
ISBN 10: 0691265607
Pages: 280
Publication Date: 01 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Mara van der Lugt is lecturer in philosophy at the University of St Andrews. She is the author of Dark Matters: Pessimism and the Problem of Suffering, Begetting: What Does It Mean to Create a Child? (both Princeton), and Bayle, Jurieu, and the ""Dictionnaire Historique et Critique.""

Reviews for Hopeful Pessimism

""Van der Lugt’s main concern is arguably both more farsighted and more immediately pressing than any particular fire or election. . . . For those who feel dread about America and the world, hopeful pessimism. . . offers, I think, what might otherwise be called realism without requiring that one abandon the beauty of possibility. I like, too, that hopeful pessimism demands action, because there are no promises; it banishes wishful thinking.""---Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic ""Provocative and compelling.""---Glenn C. Altschuler, Psychology Today ""Timely.""---Kieran Setiya, Times Literary Supplement ""Eloquent and thought-provoking.""---Leslie Jones, Quarterly Review ""[An] erudite study. . . . This book is a subtle, reflective and inspiring contribution to an engaged social philosophy for our time.""---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer ""[A] brilliant book. . . . Many will find it a therapeutic read, and not only those involved in climate activism. Hopeful Pessimism is shaped by the needs of life, and it that sense it's practical philosophy at its best.""---Daniel Callcut, New Humanist ""The best of what optimism and pessimism both have to offer. It has the advantage of drawing us away from self-centred hope, and towards the responsibilities we have to our fellow human beings and the wider world.""---Joe Humphreys, Irish Times ""A timely and meaningful intervention in how we think about hope, despair, and action in an age of crisis. . . . it will. . . resonate with anyone trying to navigate the tension between action and despair in their own lives.""---Riti Kumari, Journal of Applied Philosophy