Hope

Video premiere AUS KREISKYS WOHNZIMMER

Gertraud Borea d'Olmo in conversation with Philipp Blom

Hope
About a smart relationship with the world

Can we still hope in these times? In his new book, which will be published by Hanser Verlag at the end of September, Philipp Blom shows how hope remains possible.

Not so long ago, the future stood for a better world. In the meantime, we have become accustomed to expecting the worst and have often had to experience things getting even worse. Is there really no longer any reasonable reason to hope? Philipp Blom finds the origins of hope in a religious understanding of the world that the present can no longer do much with: Existence was meaningful because it would lead to eternal life. Today, the need for hope could drive us to lead a meaningful life by pursuing goals for a better world: Justice, for example, or sustainability. That would be the opposite of naïve optimism, it would be a sensible attitude towards the world. It is more necessary than ever.

Philipp Blom studied philosophy, history and Jewish studies in Vienna and Oxford. He lives as a writer and historian in Vienna and writes regularly for European and American magazines and newspapers. He has received numerous awards, including a fellowship at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, the Premis Internacionals Terenci Moix and the NDR Kultur non-fiction prize. His books published by Hanser include Die Welt aus den Angeln (2017), Was auf dem Spiel steht (2017) and Die Unterwerfung (2022).

Gertraud Borea d'Olmo is a member of the board of the Bruno Kreisky Forum

Philipp Blom:
Hope. About a wise relationship with the world
Hanser Verlag, September 2024, ISBN 978-3-446-28135-6