It’s the one you’ve been hoping for. In episode 115 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss the meaning of hope, from casual travel plans, to electoral optimism, to theological liberation. They discuss how hope motivates action, and how its rosy tint might be paralyzing. They explore Kant’s ambitions for perpetual peace, and discuss the Marxian imperative to transform the world. They ask, is it rational to hope? How does hoping relate to desire and expectation? And should we hope for what seems realistic, or reach for impossible utopias? Plus, in the bonus, they discuss chivalry, the future, agency, tenure, burritos, and capitalist realism.

Check out the episode's extended cut here!

Works Discussed
Augustine, Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Love
Ernst Bloch, The Principle of Hope
Joseph J. Godfrey, A Philosophy of Human Hope
Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, Religion Within The Limits of Reason Alone, Perpetual Peace
Jonathan Lear, Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation
John Lysaker, Hope, Trust, and Forgiveness: Essays in Finitude
Adrienne Martin, How We Hope: A Moral Psychology
Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach
Anthony Steinbock, Moral Emotions: Reclaiming the Evidence of the Heart
Baruch Spinoza, Short Treatise
Katja Vogt, “Imagining Good Future States: Hope and Truth in Plato’s Philebus”

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