The Generative Power of Hope: Anticipating Possibilities in Times of Crises(17 Library of Public Policy and Public Administration)

About the Book

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.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Can You Give us Good Reasons to Hope?.- Chapter 2 A Critical Moment.- Part 1: The Generative Power Of Hope.- Chapter 3 The Virtue Of Hope.- Chapter 4 Cultivating Hope.- Chapter 5 Habits Of Hoping.-Chapter 6 The Social Practice Of Hoping.- Chapter 7 Hope Makes A Difference.- Part Two: Learning From History.- Chapter 8 The Critical Value Of A Due Regard For History.- Chapter 9 After the Fall: Mid-Twentieth Century Reflections On The Crises Of Those Times.- Part3: The Crises Of Our Times.- Chapter 10 Scrutinizing The Signs Of Our Times.- Chapter 11 Humans As Creatures, Cultivators, And Exploiters Of The Earth.- Chapter 12 The Rise Of Reason And Science And Their Contemporary Discontents.- Chapter 13 Increases In Productivity And Their Ambiguous Outcomes.- Chapter 14 The Political Prospects And Burdens Of Our Times.- Chapter 15 The Fulfilling And Elusive Pursuits Of Happiness And Love.- Chapter 16 Further Reflections On The Signs Of Our Times.- Chapter 17 Conclusion  Carpe Diem.

About the Author :
Frederick Bird is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Concordia University in Montreal, where previously he held a Concordia University Research Chair in Comparative Ethics and taught in the Departments of Religion, Sociology and Management. He is also an adjunct professor in Political Science at the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Canada. He recently organized and co-authored a book on The Practices of Global Ethics. He organized and led an international research project examining the practices of international businesses in developing countries. This project resulted in the publication of 4 books and 2 special issues of the Journal of Business Ethics, which he co-edited. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 10 books including The Muted Conscience: Moral Silence and the Practice of Ethics in Business (1996), Good Management (1995), Peace is Everyone's Business (2021), The Practices of Global Ethics (2016), International Businesses and the Challenge of Poverty in the Developing World (2004), and Voices from the Voluntary Sector (2011). He recently published articles on "A Defence of Objectivity in the Social Sciences, Rightly Understood," "What is the Business of Business? Time For a Fundamental Re-Thinking," "The Practices of Mining in Developing Countries and Inclusive Wealth Development," and "The Crisis of Economic Growth: An Inescapable Ethical Challenge." In the early 1960s, Bird helped to organize a student civil rights movement in the area of Boston and in the mid-1960s he organized anti-poverty programs in downtown San Francisco. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (Modern European History), Harvard Divinity School, and the Graduate Theological Union.