University of Zanjan Philosophical Meditations 2228-5253 15 34 2025 06 22 On Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: Optimism For Realists, Or, Neither Hobbes Nor Rousseau On Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: Optimism For Realists, Or, Neither Hobbes Nor Rousseau 67 88 726584 10.30470/phm.2025.726584 FA Robert Hanna Independent Philosopher, Canada Journal Article 2025 07 16 This essay is a critical study of Rutger Bregman’s 2020 book, Humankind: A Hopeful History, from a broadly Kantian point of view. I present and defend the main points and arguments of the book, and on that basis, articulate a doctrine in social and political philosophy, which I call realistic-optimist dignitarian humanism, aka RODH, that I think captures the essence of what Bregman is driving at. Among its various theoretical and practical virtues, RODH gets constructively and creatively between Hobbes’s excessive pessimism about human nature on the one hand, and Rousseau’s unrealistic optimism about human nature on the other. This essay is a critical study of Rutger Bregman’s 2020 book, Humankind: A Hopeful History, from a broadly Kantian point of view. I present and defend the main points and arguments of the book, and on that basis, articulate a doctrine in social and political philosophy, which I call realistic-optimist dignitarian humanism, aka RODH, that I think captures the essence of what Bregman is driving at. Among its various theoretical and practical virtues, RODH gets constructively and creatively between Hobbes’s excessive pessimism about human nature on the one hand, and Rousseau’s unrealistic optimism about human nature on the other. https://phm.znu.ac.ir/article_726584_647bd614af9ec3c76abe1bb20dfa9cd6.pdf