Philosophy and Social Hope

Part 1 Autobiographical: Trotsky and the wild orchids. Part 2 Hope in place of knowledge - a version of pragmatism: truth without correspondence to reality a world without substances or essences ethics without principles. Part 3 Some applications of pragmatism: the banality of pragmatism and the poetry of justice pragmatism and law - a response to David Luban education as socialization and as individualization the humanistic intellectual - eleven theses the pragmatist's progress - Umberto Eco on interpretation religious faith, intellectual responsibility and romance religion as conversation-stopper Thomas Kuhn, rocks and the laws of physics on Hiedegger's Nazism. Part 4 Politics: failed prophecies, glorious hopes a spectre is haunting the intellectuals - Derrida on Marx love and money globalization, the politics and identity and social hope. Part 5 Contemporary America: looking backwards from the year 2096 the unpatriotic academy back to class politics.