Radical Hope

Plenty Coups, last great Chief of the Crow Nation, said, "When the buffalo went away the hearts of my people fell to the ground and they could not lift them up again. After this nothing happened." In Lear's view, this story raises an ethical question that challenges us all: how should one face the possibility that one's culture might collapse?

I. After This, Nothing Happened A Peculiar Vulnerability Protecting a Way of Life Gambling with Necessity Was There a Last Coup? Witness to Death Subject to Death The Possibility of Crow Poetry II. Ethics at the Horizon The End of Practical Reason Reasoning at the Abyss A Problem for Moral Psychology The Interpretation of Dreams Crow Anxiety The Virtue of the Chickadee The Transformation of Psychological Structure Radical Hope III. Critique of Abysmal Reasoning The Legitimacy of Radical Hope Aristotle's Method Radical Hope versus Mere Optimism Courage and Hope Virtue and Imagination Historical Vindication Personal Vindication Response to Sitting Bull Notes Acknowledgments Index