The central issue I engage in my dissertation is the dilemma over whether or not we can have a post-metaphysical hope as suggested by the neo-pragmatism of Richard Rorty or does one have to believe in God or be rooted in a traditional religious community to have a solid foundation for hope. Are other people a sufficient source of hope, or are we destined to gaze into the starry skies above in search of a transcendental foundation for our hopes?;The American pragmatist Richard Rorty offers an inspiring vision for social hope and the future of liberal democracy as dependent on "our loyalty to other human beings clinging together against the dark, not our hope of getting things right." Rorty's vision is compelling, yet it raises a fundamental question: even if we manage to cease hoping to "get things right," how are we to continue to maintain the hope necessary for "clinging together against the dark.".;In my dissertation I explore how Martin Buber's dialogic philosophy complements Rorty's utopian liberalism. Drawing on the writings on the nature of hope by such thinkers as Bloch, Benjamin, Marcel, Moltmann, Levinas, Ricoeur, and Strauss, I propose that the experiential qualities of hope---as addressed by Buber's emphasis on inter-subjective encounter---provides a phenomenological compliment to Rorty's "social hope". Buber's philosophical anthropology provides an account of subjectivity that helps fill in the experiential gaps of ecstasy, Eros, and intimacy that are left out by a purely neo-pragmatic account of social hope. Buber's ideal of "prophetic hope" encourages us to connect our utopian hopes for the eventual triumph of justice in the world with our "hourly" hopes that our everyday dialogic encounters can facilitate reciprocal recognition in the present.;Nevertheless, Buber and Rorty share a post-metaphysical conviction that we should look horizontally to our neighbors as the source for hope and redemption. I conclude that both Buber and Rorty contribute to a phenomenology of hope that encourages us to wrestle with the hourly task of overcoming despair and fear by striving to see other people as possible sources of hope.
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