What is Meliorism? Written by Shawn Funk The word ‘meliorist’ finds its root in the Latin word ‘melior,’ which means ‘better.’ According to the pragmatist philosopher William James, meliorism can be understood as a means between optimism and pessimism, or what I like to call healthy skepticism (Bloeser & Stahl, 2022). It holds that the world can be made better through human action. Underlying meliorism is the deeply held belief in human progress. What a religious sentiment! Interestingly, while James is a hardcore pragmatist, there is an element of hope embedded into meliorism; James calls this hope rational faith, and it is a critical component of the concept of meliorism…