Serious hope in our times must recognize the realities of the human condition, criticizing the illusory promises of naïve optimism. Given the significance of suffering as constitutive of the human condition, it may be argued that the philosophy of suffering does not occupy an adequate place within philosophical research. Our interdisciplinary CoE will seek to change this situation. It will place suffering at the center of philosophical reflection and offer conceptual tools for a deeper understanding of our engagement with affliction, starting from the meliorist (Lat. melior, better) idea that the world can and should be made better by means of piecemeal human efforts. According to meliorism, a positive outcome is neither guaranteed (optimism) nor impossible (pessimism) but something we may hope for if we do our best to actively make it real. Integrating philosophy with the other humanities, we will develop an empirically enriched, pragmatically meliorist discourse on suffering.

2026

2028