Unlike Rorty, I do believe that the “utopian hope” itself must be given up, not just its “philosophical guarantees,” such as were attempted in Marxist philosophies of history. But when the hope that rests on “control” and “reason” and is blind to the “unbearable” and “irremediable” has died, then in the midst of an “unbearable” and “irremediable” world a new hope in self-giving love can be born.
