The Temptation of Hope

Zusammenfassung

Utopian thinking and imagination have fallen on hard times. It has almost become a common place that utopian visions are obsolete. The present state of world affairs seems to paralyze utopian thinking. In an age of worldwide exploitation and destruction of nature, of triumphant global capitalism, and of senseless terrorism the future of mankind seems bleak. Especially the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, if that was suppose to be a utopia at all, has shattered all dreams of century-old social utopias. Utopia is draped in a mourning veil, and Postmodernism, we are told is ringing in the end of Utopia. Would it not be wiser, under these anti-utopian circumstances, to say farewell to utopian thinking?

It is against this backdrop of recent cultural pessimism that this volume on The Temptation of Hope tries to rescue the power of utopian thinking and imagination.