The Poetics of Hope: Treanor’s Invitation to the Mystery of Being

ABSTRACT

A study of the strain and striving in the heart of human finitude, Brian Treanor’s case for melancholic joy uses the resources of hermeneutic philosophy and the arts to galvanize a hopeful counterweight to despair. Though evil and suffering are tragically ingrained in the tissue of lived experience, and entropy and loss buffet our projects and aspirations, there remains in the landscape of being a durable mystery of goodness, beauty, and grace. Treanor pits such mystery against our calcified pessimisms and arid theodicies by drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s vision for a “second naiveté” of faith, gratitude, and moral responsibility that is worthy of living in – and up to – an order of things which is dark yet shining. Melancholic joy is neither resignation nor optimism, but an attuning praxis that can be realized through responsive modes of vitality, love, attention, and tragic wisdom.

KEYWORDS:

• finitude
• evil
• joy
• vitality
• mystery
• amor mundi

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A public domain image of the print is available through the Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336228

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher Yates

Christopher Yates is Instructor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at James Madison University. Specializing in nineteenth and twentieth century European philosophy, and aesthetics, his research focuses on phenomenology and hermeneutics, German Idealism, and intersections of these with currents in the literary and visual arts. He is the author of The Poetic Imagination in Heidegger and Schelling (Bloomsbury, 2013), as well as articles that have appeared in journals such as Research in Phenomenology, Continental Philosophy Review, European Journal of Philosophy, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, Philosophy and Social Criticism, and The Hedgehog Review.