What should we hope for in the face of the climate crisis? Some have proposed that we should embrace a radical hope: a hope for a goodness that we do not yet have the capacity to understand. Miguel argues that those who advocate for radical hope are inadvertently suggesting that we give up our way of life and prepare for radical cultural devastation. This is not justified.
Nonetheless, proponents of radical hope identify a difficulty that is worth our attention: in changing our practices to address and adapt to climate change, it will not always be clear why a given action or attitude is valuable or worth adopting. However, the appropriate response is not radical hope but cultivating of our moral imagination.
By cultivating our moral imagination, we can come to see our actions as worthwhile and as compatible with important aspects of what we take life to be worth living for. Imaginative excellence is thus a more important virtue than radical hope in our efforts to address climate change.
This talk is for members only: you can find out more about becoming a TRIP member here.
About the Speaker:
Miguel is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at the Universities of St Andrews and Stirling on the Philosophy of Climate Change. He works on Ethics. Miguel has produced reports for the United Nations and is working to establish a Philosophy in Prisons programme at the University of St Andrews. After work you are likely to find him discussing films or walking the Cairngorms.