	Jonathan Lear is the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor at the Committee on Social Thought and is in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Chicago. Lear published Radical Hope in an attempt to show what occurs when a concept of meaning is lost through the use of Plenty Coups, a Crow tribe leader who lived during the time in which the Crow were relocated to reservations and the purpose of their former way of life became meaningless.
	Plenty Coups’s actions (becoming a leader in other ways in spite of the things that would allow him to be a leader during the time when the Crow as a whole had a meaning in life) do not seem to represent one of the flaws of philosophy (namely the fact that philosophy is not a body of knowledge in itself.) His actions instead suggest that he took a concept that lost meaning and used the ideals of reaching that concept to promote another concept. He used the courage necessary to become a successful Crow leader to his remaining tribe members the best that they could hope to receive in the circumstances that they were placed in. This closely resembles a hybrid of Dr. Harry Frankfurt and Dr. Susan Wolf’s accounts of meaning in life, where one must find something that they love while the action also engages in the ability to be seen by others as having meaningfulness to it. To the Crow people and to present day observers looking back at what occurred, promoting education and the loss of the old Crow ways is the best option that the remaining Crow tribe had, as resistance would likely lead to the entire loss of Crow people. Although Plenty Coups might not have seen this as the best action for himself growing up while the transition occurred,  taking another option other than hoping that the old Crow way of life could be restored in some fashion would likely lead to nothing occurring without action, and action would lead to resistance from the United States government. In essence, Plenty Coups’s actions represent one way to live life meaningfully, even if the concept of a meaningful life is hard to understand due to the events that can occur in one’s life.
