 A pragmatist conception of hope has often been seen as closely linked to the idea of meliorism and progress (e.g., in Dewey’s work, see Shade 2001: 139). In his lectures on Pragmatism, James situates the doctrine of meliorism between pessimism and optimism: “Meliorism treats salvation as neither necessary nor impossible. It treats it as a possibility” (James 2000: 125). For Dewey, the object of hope or meliorism is first and foremost democracy, which is “the simple idea that political and ethical progress hinges on nothing more than persons, their values, and their actions” (Dewey [1916] 1980: 107).