Productive Pessimism: Rehabilitating John Herz’s Survival Research for the Anthropocene

Abstract

John H. Herz (1908–2005) was a lifelong pessimist, but this did not prevent him from articulating a positive research programme for avoiding nuclear and environmental catastrophe he termed ‘Survival Research’. This chapter explores Herz’s pessimism as a grounded, rational approach to the world that identified problems amenable to scholarly attention and potential solution. Without this pessimism, Survival Research would perhaps not have existed, a conclusion from which we can learn about our engagement with the world in International Relations. Moreover, if we understand pessimism as a ‘productive’ resource for developing world views and forms of scholarly action, we can overcome its characterization as negative or fatalistic. In this sense, both pessimism and Survival Research might be rehabilitated and guide us in the uncertain times of the Anthropocene.