essay of hope

Essays About Hope: Top 5 Examples Plus 5 Prompts

No matter what happens in life, we all have hopes and dreams. If you are writing essays about hope, you can start by reading our top examples and prompts.

Hope is said to be “the remedy for grief and despair.” It allows us to long for better days whenever we are feeling down. When we are hopeful, it is as if we are trying to wish or manifest for something to happen; we sincerely anticipate whatever we are hoping for.

Hope is an important feeling since it keeps us optimistic, but like all things, it is not good in excess. We often get lost in our hope and let it delude us into thinking the most unrealistic things. It is good to hope, but you should not allow it to get the best of you.

5 Top Essay Examples

1. a reflection of hope by shannon cohen, 2. my hopes & dreams by celia robinson, 3. hope: the forgotten virtue of our time. by paul j. wadell, 4. an ideal of hope by jonathan belle.

• 5. ​​Hope and Reality by Greg Arnold

1. What Is Hope?

2. what do you hope for your future, 3. what makes me hopeful, 4. feeling hopeless in life, 5. how to help others be more hopeful.

“Hope is a fighter. Hope may flicker or falter but doesn’t quit. Hope reminds us that we are Teflon tough, able to withstand the dings, scratches, and burns of life. Hope is the quintessential “hype-man.” Hope will have you raise the roof, jump up and down, and rock side to side believing that you are magic, your dreams are within reach, and your life is greater than your present circumstances. We All Need Hope.”

Intertwined with quotes about hope, Cohen’s essay describes the many roles that hope can play in our lives. With hope, we can learn from our mistakes and improve ourselves. It fuels us to achieve our goals, helps us keep persevering, and inspires us. We are also the products of our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. 

“As I have mentioned earlier, everyone wants to become successful in the future. I do also; I want to go University, yet I haven’t decided what for so far. I want to grow up and make my Parents proud, especially when my Dad’s up there watching over me. I want to be happy. But every step I take, has the potential of changing my entire path, where my life is leading. So I must live life to the full, no matter what. Hope is something everyone needs.”

Robinson reflects on what she is hopeful for, recalling her childhood fantasies of living an idyllic, magical life. She discusses her dreams of going to university and making her parents, specifically her deceased father, proud of her. She hopes to live life to the fullest and for a better world. In particular, she hopes to see the day when cancer is no longer as severe an issue as it is today. Hope is important and is something everyone should have. 

“Hope keeps us from being so immersed in the good things of this world that we forget who we really are, a people on the move, pilgrims who are called not to stay put but to move toward the feast. Most of all, hope prevents us from becoming so comfortable with the pleasures of life that the possibility of a journey never even occurs to us.”

Wadell writes about hope from a Christian point of view; however, his message speaks to everyone. He gives readers a brief history of hope as a virtue in Christianity, saying that hope should be directed towards God and his kingdom. Hope allows us to appreciate all that is good in the world while keeping us longing for more. To nurture our feelings of hope, Wadell says that we must practice gratitude and spread hope to others. 

“Hope is important because hope involves the will to get there, and different paths for you to take. Life can be difficult and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Yet, hope allows you to keep going down different roads, to see things different, and to try and make things for your perfect ideal. This hold true, even when there seems like there isn’t a solution.”

In this essay, Bell writes about his interpretation of hope: it is universal and gives us the will to work for whatever we hope for, not just sitting around and waiting for it to happen. For our hopes to be fulfilled, we must also put in the work. Bell also writes that you can strengthen your sense of hope by surrounding yourself with positive people and planning your goals. We are also called to bring hope to others so we can be hopeful for a better future. 

5. ​​ Hope and Reality by Greg Arnold

“Don’t be pessimistic and you have to remember that most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all- Dale Carnegie. Finally, it is acceptable to spend some time in hope but don’t live in it, you need to live in reality which is the way in getting things into results.”

Arnold’s essay explains the importance of keeping our hopes grounded in reality, not too optimistic yet not negative as well. We cannot predict the future, but we can at least yearn for the better and strive to work for it to happen. He believes that we should stop being so pessimistic about the world and dream big, for the hopes of many can be accomplished with hard work and determination. 

5 Prompts for Essays About Hope

The definition of hope can differ from person to person, as our experiences shape our sense of hope. In your essay, you can write about what hope means to you. Then, briefly explain why you are hopeful and what you hope for if you wish. You can also check out these essays about jealousy .

We all have our hopes and dreams for our futures. Reflect on hope and share what you hope for in your future and why you hope for it. Perhaps you hope for a long and healthy life or something as simple as hoping for a good grade on your test. The scope can be as small as a few days or ten years, as long as you can share your thoughts clearly and descriptively. 

For your essay, you can write about what makes you hopeful. Describe a person, memory, idea, or whatever else you may choose, and explain why it makes you hopeful. Many things invoke hope, so make sure your essay reflects your personal opinion and includes anecdotes and memories. For example, you may have a relative that you are inspired by, and their success could make you hopeful for your own future.

The world is not perfect, and we all feel despondent and hopeless from time to time. Look back on time you could not bring yourself to hope for better. Discuss what led you to this situation and how you felt. This may be a sensitive topic to write about, so do not go too in-depth if you are not comfortable doing so.

If someone you know is feeling hopeless, chances are you would try to lift their spirits. Address your essay to people who feel hopeless and give tips on improving one’s mental health: they can be as simple as getting more sleep or being outdoors more. For an in-depth piece, cite psychological studies to support your tips.

Grammarly is one of our top grammar checkers. Find out why in this Grammarly review .

For help picking your next essay topic, check out our top essay topics about love .

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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• Yale Divinity School

Reflections

You are here, theologies of hope.

This article is a shortened adaptation of a two-part “For the Life of the World” podcast on the theme of hope that YDS Professor Miroslav Volf posted in summer 2020, produced by the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. You can listen here to podcast Part 1 and Part 2 .

Fear, more than hope, is characteristic of our time. In the late 1960s, we were optimistic about the century’s hopes for the triumph of justice and something like universal peace, but that has given way to increasing pessimism. “No future” scenarios have become plausible to us. As I write in summer 2020, the coronavirus pandemic gives the dominant shape to our anxieties. But even before the pandemic, we feared more than we hoped. We feared and continue to fear falling behind as the gap widens between the ultra-rich and the rest who are condemned to run frantically just to stay in the same place yet often cannot prevent falling behind. We fear the collapse of the ecosystem straining under the burden of our ambitions, the revenge of nature for violence we perpetrate against it. We fear loss of cultural identities as the globe shrinks, and people, driven by war, ecological devastation, and deprivation, migrate to where they can survive and thrive.

Politically, the consequence is the rise of identity politics and nationalism, both driven largely by fear. Culturally, the consequences are dystopian movies and literature, and the popularity of pessimistic philosophies. In religious thought and imagination, too, apocalyptic moods are again in vogue. Hope seems impossible; fear feels overwhelming.

A Thing With Feathers

The Apostle Paul has penned some of the most famous lines about hope ever written: “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:24-25). Hope is a strange thing – as Emily Dickinson declares in her famous poem , it’s a “thing with feathers” perched in our soul, ready to take us on its wings to some future good. In fact, hope is a thing that has already taken us to that good with the tune that it sings. In hope – or perhaps by hope – “we were saved,” writes Apostle Paul. In hope, a future good which isn’t yet, somehow already is. A future good we cannot see, which waits in darkness, still qualifies our entire existence. We might be suffering or experiencing “hardship … distress … persecution … famine … nakedness … peril … sword … we are being killed all day long” (Romans 8:18, 35-36), and yet we have been saved and we are saved.

Interpreting the phrase “in hope we are saved,” Martin Luther suggested in his Lectures on Romans that just as love transforms the lover into the beloved, so “hope changes the one who hopes into what is hoped for.” [1]   Thus, a key feature of hope is that it stretches a person into the unknown, the hidden, the darkness of unknown possibility. For Paul this can happen because God is with us – God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.

Hope vs. Optimism vs. Expectation

When I hope, I expect something in the future. I cannot hope for my 18-year-old son to know how to ride a bike, because he knows that already. But I can hope for him to do well in college, for that’s where he is headed in the fall. Without expectation for the future, there can be no hope. But we don’t hope for everything we can expect in the future. We generally don’t hope for natural occurrences, such as a new day that dawns after a dark and restful night; I know , more or less, that the next day will come. But I may hope for cool breezes to freshen up a hot summer day. We reserve the term “hope” for the expectation of things that we cannot fully control or predict with a high degree of certainty. The way we generally use the word, “hope” can be roughly defined as the expectation of good things that don’t come to us as a matter of course . That’s the distinction between hope and expectation.

The God who creates out of nothing, the God who makes the dead alive, justifies hope that is otherwise unjustifiable.

In his justly famous book Theology of Hope (1964), Jürgen Moltmann, one of the greatest theologians of the second part of the 20th century, made another important distinction, that between hope and optimism. [2] The source of the distinction relates to the specific way some ancient biblical writers understand hope. Optimism, if it is justified, is based on extrapolations we make about the future based upon what we can reasonably discern to be tendencies in the present. Meteorologists observe weather patterns around the globe and release their forecasts for the next day: the day will be unseasonably warm, but in the early afternoon winds will pick up and bring some relief; now you have reason to be optimistic that the afternoon will be pleasant, perhaps you even look forward to sailing your little 12-foot sloop on three-foot swells. Or, to take another scenario, you and your spouse are healthy adults of childbearing age, you have had no trouble conceiving, and the obstetrician tells you that your pregnancy is going well; you have reason to be optimistic that you will give birth to a healthy child. The present contains the seeds of the future, and if it is well with these seeds, the future that will grow will be good as well. That’s reasonable optimism.

Hope, argued Moltmann, is different. Hope is not based on accurate extrapolation about the future from the character of the present; the hoped-for future is not born out of the present. The future good that is the object of hope is a new thing, novum , that comes in part from outside the situation. Correspondingly, hope is, in Emily Dickinson’s felicitous phrase, like a bird that flies in from outside and “perches in the soul.” Optimism in dire situations reveals an inability to understand what is going on or an unwillingness to accept it and is therefore an indication of foolishness or weakness. In contrast, hope during dire situations, hope notwithstanding the circumstances, is a sign of courage and strength.

What is the use of hope not based on evidence or reason, you may wonder? Think of the alternative. What happens when we identify hope with reasonable expectation? Facing the shocking collapse of what we had expected with good reasons, we will slump into hopelessness at the time when we need hope the most! Hope helps us identify signs of hope as signs of hope rather than just anomalies in an otherwise irreparable situation, as indicators of a new dawn rather than the last flickers of a dying light. Hope also helps us to press on with determination and courage. When every course of action by which we could reach the desired future seems destined to failure, when we cannot reasonably draw a line that would connect the terror of the present with future joy, hope remains indomitable and indestructible. When we hope, we always hope against reasonable expectations. That’s why Emily Dickinson’s bird of hope “never stops” singing – in the sore storm, in the chilliest land, on the strangest sea.

Hope Needs Endurance, Endurance Needs Hope

We are most in need of hope under an affliction and menace we cannot control, yet it is in those situations that it is most difficult for us to hold onto hope and not give ourselves over to darkness as our final state. That is where patience and endurance come in. In the same letter to the Romans, in the same passage that celebrates hope and its transformative darkness, Paul writes: “If we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:25). “Patience” is here the translation of hypomone , which is better rendered as endurance, or perhaps “patient endurance.” 

Neither patience nor endurance are popular emotions or skills. Our lives are caught in a whirlwind of accelerated changes; we have little endurance for endurance, no patience with patience. Technological advances promise to give us lives of ease; having to endure anything strikes us as a defeat. And yet, when a crisis hits, we need endurance as much as we need hope. Or, more precisely, we need genuine hope, which, to the extent that it is genuine, is marked by endurance.

When the great Apostle says in Romans 8:25 that if we hope, we wait with endurance, he implies that hope generates endurance: because we hope we can endure present suffering. That was his point in the opening statement of the section on suffering in Romans 8:18: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” The hope of future glory makes present suffering bearable. But, in Romans 5:3-5, he inverts the relation between hope and endurance. There he writes, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Now endurance helps generate hope. Putting the two texts together, Romans 8 and Romans 5, we can say: hope needs endurance and endurance needs hope; genuine endurance is marked by hope; and genuine hope is marked by endurance.

The God of Promises

More than half a century after his Theology of Hope , Jürgen Moltmann has written an essay, On Patience (2018), about two aspects of patience we find in the biblical traditions: forbearance and endurance. Writing as a 92-year-old, he begins the second paragraph of this essay on patience autobiographically:

In my youth, I learned to know “the God of hope” and loved the beginnings of a new life with new ideas. But in my old age I am learning to know “the God of patience” and stay in my place in life . [3]

Youth and old age, Moltmann goes on to say, are not about chronology, but about experiences in life and stances toward life. Hope and patience belong both to youth and to old age; they complement each other. He continues:

Without endurance, hope turns superficial and evaporates when it meets first resistances. In hope we start something new, but only endurance helps us persevere. Only tenacious endurance makes hope sustainable. We learn endurance only with the help of hope. On the other hand, when hope gets lost, endurance turns into passivity. Hope turns endurance into active passivity. In hope we affirm the pain that comes with endurance, and learn to tolerate it. [4]

Hope and endurance – neither can be truly itself without the other. And for the Apostle Paul, both our hope and our ability to endure – our enduring hope – are rooted in the character of God. Toward the end of Romans, he highlights both “the God of endurance” (or steadfastness) and “the God of hope” (Romans 15:5, 13). Those who believe in that God – the God who is the hope of Israel, the God who is the hope of Gentiles and the hope of the whole earth – are able to be steadfast and endure fear-inducing situations they cannot change and in which no good future seems to be in sight. But more than just endure. Paul, the persecuted apostle who experienced himself as “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,” was hoping for more than just endurance from the God of hope. Toward the very end of his letter to the Christians in Rome – in the second of what looks like four endings of the letter – he writes: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). In the midst of affliction, the God of hope opens us up for the possibility of joy and comprehensive well-being.

Our salvation lies in hope, but not in hope that insists on the future good it has imagined, but in hope ready to rejoice in the kind of good that actually comes our way. The God who creates out of nothing, the God who makes dead alive – the God of the original beginning of all things and the God of new beginnings – justifies hope that is otherwise unjustifiable. When that God makes a promise, we can hope.

Miroslav Volf is Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at YDS and founding director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. He is the author of A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good (Brazos, 2011) and other books.

[1] Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans , edited by Hilton C. Oswald, volume 25 of Luther’s Works , edited by Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut Lehmann (Concordia Publishing House, 1972), p. 364.

[2] Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope: On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology , translated by Margaret Kohl (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991).

[3] Jürgen Moltmann, Über Geduld, Barmherzigkeit und Solidarität (Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2018), p. 13, my translation.

[4] Moltmann, pp. 13-14.

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‘Hope is a​n embrace of the unknown​’: Rebecca Solnit on living in dark times

We may be living through times of unprecedented change, but in uncertainty lies the power to influence the future. Now is not the time to despair, but to act

Y our opponents would love you to believe that it’s hopeless, that you have no power, that there’s no reason to act, that you can’t win. Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away. And though hope can be an act of defiance, defiance isn’t enough reason to hope. But there are good reasons.

In 2003 and early 2004, I wrote a book to make the case for hope. Hope in the Dark was, in many ways, of its moment – it was written against the tremendous despair at the height of the Bush administration’s powers and the outset of the war in Iraq. That moment passed long ago, but despair, defeatism, cynicism and the amnesia and assumptions from which they often arise have not dispersed, even as the most wildly, unimaginably magnificent things came to pass. There is a lot of evidence for the defence.

Coming back to the text more than a dozen tumultuous years later, I believe its premises hold up. Progressive, populist and grassroots constituencies have had many victories. Popular power has continued to be a profound force for change. And the changes we have undergone, both wonderful and terrible, are astonishing.

This is an extraordinary time full of vital, transformative movements that could not be foreseen. It is also a nightmarish time. Full engagement requires the ability to perceive both. The 21st century has seen the rise of hideous economic inequality, perhaps due to amnesia both of the working people who countenance declines in wages, working conditions and social services, and the elites who forgot that they conceded to some of these things in the hope of avoiding revolution. The attack on civil liberties, including the right to privacy, continues long after its “global war on terror” justifications have faded away.

Worse than these is the arrival of climate change, faster, harder and more devastating than scientists anticipated. Hope doesn’t mean denying these realities. It means facing them and addressing them by remembering what else the 21st century has brought, including the movements, heroes and shifts in consciousness that address these things now. This has been a truly remarkable decade for movement-building, social change and deep shifts in ideas, perspective and frameworks for large parts of the population (and, of course, backlashes against all those things).

I t is important to say what hope is not: it is not the belief that everything was, is or will be fine. The evidence is all around us of tremendous suffering and destruction. The hope I am interested in is about broad perspectives with specific possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act. It is also not a sunny everything-is-getting-better narrative, though it may be a counter to the everything-is-getting-worse one. You could call it an account of complexities and uncertainties, with openings. “Critical thinking without hope is cynicism, but hope without critical thinking is naivety,” the Bulgarian writer Maria Popova recently remarked. And Patrisse Cullors , one of the founders of Black Lives Matter , early on described the movement’s mission as to “Provide hope and inspiration for collective action to build collective power to achieve collective transformation, rooted in grief and rage but pointed towards vision and dreams”. It is a statement that acknowledges that grief and hope can coexist.

The tremendous human rights achievements – not only in gaining rights but in redefining race, gender, sexuality, embodiment, spirituality and the idea of the good life – of the past half-century have flowered during a time of unprecedented ecological destruction and the rise of innovative new means of exploitation. And the rise of new forms of resistance, including resistance enabled by an elegant understanding of that ecology and new ways for people to communicate and organise, and new and exhilarating alliances across distance and difference.

Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognise uncertainty, you recognise that you may be able to influence the outcomes – you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and the unknowable, an alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists adopt the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It is the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact, are not things we can know beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterwards either, but they matter all the same, and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone.

There are major movements that failed to achieve their goals; there are also comparatively small gestures that mushroomed into successful revolutions. The self-immolation of impoverished, police-harassed produce-seller Mohamed Bouazizi on 17 December 2010, in Tunisia was the spark that lit a revolution in his country and then across northern Africa and other parts of the Arab world in 2011. And though the civil war in Syria and the counter-revolutions after Egypt’s extraordinary uprising might be what most remember, Tunisia’s “jasmine revolution” toppled a dictator and led to peaceful elections in that country in 2014.

Whatever else the Arab spring was, it is an extraordinary example of how unpredictable change is and how potent popular power can be. And five years on, it is too soon to draw conclusions about what it all meant. You can tell the genesis story of the Arab spring other ways. The quiet organising going on in the shadows beforehand matters. So does the comic book about Martin Luther King and civil disobedience that was translated into Arabic and widely distributed in Egypt shortly before the uprising. You can tell of King’s civil disobedience tactics being inspired by Gandhi’s tactics, and Gandhi’s inspired by Tolstoy and the radical acts of noncooperation and sabotage of British female suffragists.

So the threads of ideas weave around the world and through the decades and centuries. There is another lineage for the Arab spring in hip-hop, the African-American music that’s become a global medium for dissent and outrage; Tunisian hip-hop artist El Général was, along with Bouazizi, an instigator of the uprising, and other musicians played roles in articulating the outrage and inspiring the crowds.

After a rain mushrooms appear on the surface of the earth as if from nowhere. Many come from a sometimes vast underground fungus that remains invisible and largely unknown. What we call mushrooms, mycologists call the fruiting body of the larger, less visible fungus. Uprisings and revolutions are often considered to be spontaneous, but it is the less visible long-term organising and groundwork – or underground work – that often laid the foundation. Changes in ideas and values also result from work done by writers, scholars, public intellectuals, social activists and participants in social media. To many, it seems insignificant or peripheral until very different outcomes emerge from transformed assumptions about who and what matters, who should be heard and believed, who has rights.

Ideas at first considered outrageous or ridiculous or extreme gradually become what people think they’ve always believed. How the transformation happened is rarely remembered, in part because it’s compromising: it recalls the mainstream when the mainstream was, say, rabidly homophobic or racist in a way it no longer is; and it recalls that power comes from the shadows and the margins, that our hope is in the dark around the edges, not the limelight of centre stage. Our hope and often our power.

C hanging the story isn’t enough in itself, but it has often been foundational to real changes. Making an injury visible and public is usually the first step in remedying it, and political change often follows culture, as what was long tolerated is seen to be intolerable, or what was overlooked becomes obvious. Which means that every conflict is in part a battle over the story we tell, or who tells and who is heard.

A victory doesn’t mean that everything is now going to be nice forever and we can therefore all go and lounge around until the end of time. Some activists are afraid that if we acknowledge victory, people will give up the struggle. I have long been more afraid that people will give up and go home or never get started in the first place if they think no victory is possible or fail to recognise the victories already achieved. Marriage equality is not the end of homophobia, but it’s something to celebrate. A victory is a milestone on the road, evidence that sometimes we win and encouragement to keep going, not to stop. Or it should be.

My own inquiry into the grounds for hope has received two great reinforcements in recent years. One came from the recognition of how powerful are the altruistic, idealistic forces already at work in the world. Most of us would say, if asked, that we live in a capitalist society, but vast amounts of how we live our everyday lives – our interactions with and commitments to family lives, friendships, avocations, membership in social, spiritual and political organisations – are in essence noncapitalist or even anticapitalist, made up of things we do for free, out of love and on principle.

In a way, capitalism is an ongoing disaster that anticapitalism alleviates, like a mother cleaning up after her child’s messes. (Or, to extend the analogy, sometimes disciplining that child to clean up after itself, through legislation or protest, or preventing some of the messes in the first place.) And it might be worth adding that noncapitalist ways of doing things are much older than free-market economic arrangements. Activists often speak as though the solutions we need have not yet been launched or invented, as though we are starting from scratch, when often the real goal is to amplify the power and reach of existing options. What we dream of is already present in the world.

The second reinforcement came out of my investigation of how human beings respond to major urban disasters, from the devastating earthquakes in San Francisco (in 1906) and Mexico City (in 1985) to the blitz in London and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The assumption behind much disaster response by the authorities – and the logic of bombing civilians – is that civilisation is a brittle facade, and behind it lies our true nature as monstrous, selfish, chaotic and violent, or as timid, fragile, and helpless. In fact, in most disasters the majority of people are calm, resourceful, altruistic and creative. And civilian bombing campaigns generally fail to break the will of the people

What startled me about the response to disaster was not the virtue, since virtue is often the result of diligence and dutifulness, but the passionate joy that shone out from accounts by people who had barely survived. These people who had lost everything, who were living in rubble or ruins, had found agency, meaning, community, immediacy in their work together with other survivors. This century of testimony suggested how much we want lives of meaningful engagement, of membership in civil society, and how much societal effort goes into keeping us away from these fullest, most powerful selves. But people return to those selves, those ways of self-organising, as if by instinct when the situation demands it. Thus a disaster is a lot like a revolution when it comes to disruption and improvisation, to new roles and an unnerving or exhilarating sense that now anything is possible.

“M emory produces hope in the same way that amnesia produces despair,” the theologian Walter Brueggemann noted. It is an extraordinary statement, one that reminds us that though hope is about the future, grounds for hope lie in the records and recollections of the past. We can tell of a past that was nothing but defeats, cruelties and injustices, or of a past that was some lovely golden age now irretrievably lost, or we can tell a more complicated and accurate story, one that has room for the best and worst, for atrocities and liberations, for grief and jubilation. A memory commensurate to the complexity of the past and the whole cast of participants, a memory that includes our power, produces that forward-directed energy called hope.

Amnesia leads to despair in many ways. The status quo would like you to believe it is immutable, inevitable and invulnerable, and lack of memory of a dynamically changing world reinforces this view. In other words, when you don’t know how much things have changed, you don’t see that they are changing or that they can change. Those who think that way don’t remember raids on gay bars when being homosexual was illegal, or rivers that caught fire when unregulated pollution peaked in the 1960s or that there were, worldwide, 70% more seabirds a few decades ago. Thus, they don’t recognise the forces of change at work.

One of the essential aspects of depression is the sense that you will always be mired in this misery, that nothing can or will change. There’s a public equivalent to private depression, a sense that the nation or the society rather than the individual is stuck. Things don’t always change for the better, but they change, and we can play a role in that change if we act. Which is where hope comes in, and memory, the collective memory we call history.

The other affliction amnesia brings is a lack of examples of positive change, of popular power, evidence that we can do it and have done it. George Orwell wrote: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Controlling the past begins by knowing it; the stories we tell about who we were and what we did shape what we can and will do. Despair is also often premature: it’s a form of impatience as well as of certainty.

News cycles tend to suggest that change happens in small, sudden bursts or not at all. The struggle to get women the vote took nearly three-quarters of a century. For a time people liked to announce that feminism had failed, as though the project of overturning millennia of social arrangements should achieve its final victories in a few decades, or as though it had stopped. Feminism is just starting, and its manifestations matter in rural Himalayan villages, not just major cities.

Other changes result in victories and are then forgotten. For decades, radicals were preoccupied with Timor-Leste, brutally occupied by Indonesia from 1975 to 2002; the liberated country is no longer news. It won its liberty because of valiant struggle from within, but also because of dedicated groups on the outside who pressured and shamed the governments supporting the Indonesian regime. We could learn a lot from the remarkable display of power and solidarity and Timor-Leste’s eventual victory, but the whole struggle seems forgotten.

We need litanies or recitations or monuments to these victories, so that they are landmarks in everyone’s mind. More broadly, shifts in, say, the status of women are easily overlooked by people who don’t remember that, a few decades ago, reproductive rights were not yet a concept, and there was no recourse for exclusion, discrimination, workplace sexual harassment, most forms of rape, and other crimes against women the legal system did not recognise or even countenance. None of the changes were inevitable, either – people fought for them and won them.

S ocial, cultural or political change does not work in predictable ways or on predictable schedules. The month before the Berlin Wall fell, almost no one anticipated that the Soviet bloc was going to disintegrate all of a sudden (thanks to many factors, including the tremendous power of civil society, nonviolent direct action and hopeful organising going back to the 1970s), any more than anyone, even the participants, foresaw the impact that the Arab spring or Occupy Wall Street or a host of other great uprisings would have. We don’t know what is going to happen, or how, or when, and that very uncertainty is the space of hope.

Those who doubt that these moments matter should note how terrified the authorities and elites are when they erupt. That fear signifies their recognition that popular power is real enough to overturn regimes and rewrite the social contract. And it often has. Sometimes your enemies know what your friends can’t believe. Those who dismiss these moments because of their imperfections, limitations, or incompleteness need to look harder at what joy and hope shine out of them and what real changes have emerged because of them, even if not always in the most obvious or recognisable ways.

Change is rarely straightforward. Sometimes it’s as complex as chaos theory and as slow as evolution. Even things that seem to happen suddenly arise from deep roots in the past or from long-dormant seeds. A young man’s suicide triggers an uprising that inspires other uprisings, but the incident was a spark; the bonfire it lit was laid by activist networks and ideas about civil disobedience, and by the deep desire for justice and freedom that exists everywhere.

It’s important to ask not only what those moments produced in the long run but what they were in their heyday. If people find themselves living in a world in which some hopes are realised and some joys are incandescent and some boundaries between individuals and groups are lowered, even for an hour or a day or several months, that matters. Memory of joy and liberation can become a navigational tool, an identity, a gift.

Paul Goodman famously wrote, “Suppose you had the revolution you are talking and dreaming about. Suppose your side had won, and you had the kind of society that you wanted. How would you live, you personally, in that society? Start living that way now!” It’s an argument for tiny and temporary victories, and for the possibility of partial victories in the absence or even the impossibility of total victories.

Total victory has always seemed like a secular equivalent of paradise: a place where all the problems are solved and there’s nothing to do, a fairly boring place. The absolutists of the old left imagined that victory would, when it came, be total and permanent, which is practically the same as saying that victory was and is impossible and will never come.

It is, in fact, more than possible. It is something that has arrived in innumerable ways, small and large and often incremental, but not in that way that was widely described and expected. So victories slip by unheralded. Failures are more readily detected.

And then every now and then, the possibilities explode. In these moments of rupture, people find themselves members of a “we” that did not until then exist, at least not as an entity with agency and identity and potency; new possibilities suddenly emerge, or that old dream of a just society re-emerges and – at least for a little while – shines. Utopia is sometimes the goal. It is often embedded in the moment itself, and it is a hard moment to explain, since it usually involves hardscrabble ways of living, squabbles and, eventually, disillusion and factionalism. But also more ethereal things: the discovery of personal and collective power, the realisation of dreams, the birth of bigger dreams, a sense of connection that is as emotional as it is political, and lives that change and do not revert to older ways even when the glory subsides.

Sometimes the earth closes over this moment and it has no obvious consequences; sometimes empires crumble and ideologies fall away like shackles. But you don’t know beforehand. People in official institutions devoutly believe they hold the power that matters, though the power we grant them can often be taken back; the violence commanded by governments and militaries often fails, and nonviolent direct-action campaigns often succeed.

The sleeping giant is one name for the public; when it wakes up, when we wake up, we are no longer only the public: we are civil society, the superpower whose nonviolent means are sometimes, for a shining moment, more powerful than violence, more powerful than regimes and armies. We write history with our feet and with our presence and our collective voice and vision. And yet, and of course, everything in the mainstream media suggests that popular resistance is ridiculous, pointless, or criminal, unless it is far away, was long ago, or, ideally, both. These are the forces that prefer the giant stays asleep.

Together we are very powerful, and we have a seldom-told, seldom-remembered history of victories and transformations that can give us confidence that, yes, we can change the world because we have many times before. You row forward looking back, and telling this history is part of helping people navigate toward the future. We need a litany, a rosary, a sutra, a mantra, a war chant of our victories. The past is set in daylight, and it can become a torch we can carry into the night that is the future.

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Discussions of hope can be found throughout the history of philosophy and across all Western philosophical traditions, even though philosophy has traditionally not paid the same attention to hope as it has to attitudes like belief and desire. However, even though hope has historically only rarely been discussed systematically—with important exceptions, such as Aquinas, Bloch and Marcel—almost all major philosophers acknowledge that hope plays an important role in regard to human motivation, religious belief or politics. Historically, discussions of the importance of hope were often embedded in particular philosophical projects. More recent discussions of hope provide independent accounts of its nature and its relation to other mental phenomena, such as desire, intention and optimism.

1. Introduction

2.1 ancient accounts of hope, 2.2 christian authors on hope, 2.3 hope in 17 th and 18 th century philosophy, 2.4 immanuel kant, 2.5 post-kantian philosophy and existentialism, 2.6 pragmatism, 3. the standard account and the rationality of hope, 4. analyses of hope in the psychological literature, 5. hope in political philosophy, other internet resources, related entries.

Compared with more widely discussed attitudes like belief and desire, the phenomenon of hope presents some unique challenges for both theories of the mind and theories of value. Hope is not only an attitude that has cognitive components—it is responsive to facts about the possibility and likelihood of future events. It also has a conative component—hopes are different from mere expectations insofar as they reflect and draw upon our desires. A classic analysis of hope—the so-called “standard account” (see section 3 )—takes hope to be a compound attitude, consisting of a desire for an outcome and a belief in that outcome’s possibility. But not all outcomes that we believe to be possible and that we desire are thereby objects of our hope. In order to hope one not only has to consider an outcome possible, one also has to affectively engage with this outcome in a distinctive way. This raises the question as to whether hope can be reduced to beliefs and desires.

Popular discourse often takes hope to be synonymous with optimism. But while optimism can be usefully analyzed as a desire for an outcome together with a belief that the outcome is more likely than not (or more likely than the evidence leads other people to believe), many philosophers hold that hope, properly understood, is independent of probability assessments (see section 3 ). One can hope for outcomes that one considers to be very unlikely and that one does not expect to happen, such as a miraculous cure of an illness. In such cases, optimism is not an appropriate response.

It is an open question whether the contribution of hope to human agency is to be identified with that of the underlying desires or whether hope makes an independent contribution to motivation or reasoning. If one assumes that hope cannot make any independent contribution to practical reasoning but still motivates, this raises the suspicion that it distorts rational agency. While such an assessment can be found across the history of philosophy, many past and contemporary philosophers provide analyses of hope that add further elements to the belief-desire analysis and use these elements to explain why acting on one’s hopes is (sometimes) rational.

2. The Philosophical History of Hope

Historically, evaluations of hope change together with the prevailing view of the relationship between human action and the future. As long as the human condition is seen as essentially unchangeable, hope is more often treated as arising from mere epistemic uncertainty and as having ambivalent effects on human happiness. In philosophical contexts where either the possibility of a future life beyond this world or the idea of human progress is emphasized, hope is more often seen as an appropriate and even virtuous attitude that enables humans to direct their agency towards these possibilities (see Miceli and Castelfranchi 2010).

Although there are few explicit and systematic treatments of hope ( elpis ) in ancient Greek philosophies, they nevertheless contain important approaches to the nature of hope and its role in the good life and practical deliberation (Gravlee 2020). Ambivalent evaluations of hope can be found in many texts. On the one hand, hope is often seen as an attitude of those who have insufficient knowledge or are easily swayed by wishful thinking. It thus has a negative reputation (Vogt 2017) as an attitude that (at least potentially) misleads actions and agents. Even Solon focuses on empty hopes (see Lewis 2006: 85; Caston and Kaster 2016). On the other hand, hope is praised as a response to despair, e.g., in the dialogues of Thucydides, who advances a nuanced view of the potential dangers and advantages of hope (Schlosser 2013). An ambivalent evaluation of hope is also reflected in Hesiod’s version of the tale of Pandora. When all the evils had escaped from Pandora’s jar, famously, only hope ( elpis ) remained (“Works and Days”, §90). This seems to suggest that hope can also sustain human agency in the face of widespread evil. It must be noted, however, that there are many competing interpretations of why elpis remained in the jar (Verdenius 1985): Was it to keep hope available for humans or, rather, to keep hope from humankind? Is hope consequently to be regarded as good (“a comfort to man in his misery and a stimulus rousing his activity”, Verdenius 1985: 66) or as evil (“idle hope in which the lazy man indulges when he should be working honestly for his living”, Verdenius 1985: 66)? These different interpretations of Pandora’s myth are taken up throughout the history of Philosophy (especially among existentialist authors, see section 2.5 ).

In Plato’s dialogues, we find negative as well as positive assessments of hope. In particular, Plato even argues that hope can be rational. In the Timaeus , Plato adopts a rather negative attitude towards hope by recounting a myth according to which the divine beings give us “those mindless advisers confidence and fear, (…) and gullible hope” ( Timaeus , 69b). In the Philebus , by contrast, he seems to also allow for a more favorable view of the role of hope in human life. The relevant discussion of hope takes place in the context of an argument about “false pleasures”. Against Protarch’s objection that only opinions can be true or false, but not pleasures, Socrates develops an analogy between opinion and pleasure ( Philebus , 36d). In this context, he describes “pleasures of anticipation”, that is, expectations of future pleasures, that are called hopes ( Philebus , 39e3). As Frede (1985) argues, in the case of such pleasures of anticipation what we enjoy at present is only a thought. As there can be a discrepancy between the thought that we enjoy and what is in fact going to happen, the pleasure can be true—in which case it seems appropriate to say that the corresponding hope can be rationally endorsed—or false (Frede 1985: 174f.). The Philebus also presents hope as essential to human agency: Plato seems to suggest that all our agential representations are concerned with the future, which connects them to hope (Vogt 2017). Plato’s positive view of hope can also be found in the Apology and the Phaedo , where he argues that hope for the afterlife is rational (Gravlee 2020).

Aristotle’s treatment of hope in the context of his discussion of the virtue of courage has received some attention (Gravlee 2000; Lear 2006), as well as the role of hope in his practical philosophy in general (Kontos 2021a). On the one hand, Aristotle describes the relationship between hope and courage as a contrast. He identifies two sources of hopefulness that are non-courageous: First, it is possible to be hopeful “at sea […] and in disease”, but this hope does not involve courage, insofar as, in such situations, there is neither “opportunity of showing prowess”, nor is death “noble” in these cases, according to Aristotle ( Nicomachean Ethics 3.6, 1115a35ff.). Second, one can be hopeful based on one’s experience of good fortune ( Nicomachean Ethics 3.8, 1117a10ff.). In this case, the belief in the probability of a good outcome is not well grounded, but founded on mere induction. Both kinds of hopefulness are non-courageous. On the other hand, there is also a connection between hope and courage via the concept of confidence (Gravlee 2000). For example, Aristotle says:

The coward, then, is a despairing sort of person; for he fears everything. The brave man, on the other hand, has the opposite disposition; for confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition. ( Nicomachean Ethics 3.7, 1116a2)

Thus, even though not every hopeful person is courageous, every courageous person is hopeful. Hopefulness creates confidence, which, if derived from the right sources, can lead to the virtue of courage. Gravlee (2000: 471ff.) identifies two further considerations that are relevant for hope’s value in Aristotle’s thought. First, hope underlies deliberation, which is needed for any exercise of a virtuous disposition. Second, hopefulness is also presented as valuable in its connection with youth and the virtue of megalopsychia (high-mindedness): Hopefulness spurs us to the pursuit of the noble. Kontos (2021a, 2021b) focuses both on the phenomenology of hope in Aristotle’s thought, and the normative question of what the conditions are for “hoping-well”: He argues that hoping-well constitutes a correct engagement with moral luck, and it requires drawing on past experiences in a proper way as well as reliably perceiving the present reality.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, hope received a less favorable treatment by the Stoic philosophers. In particular, Seneca emphasizes hope’s relation to fear (an idea that is later taken up by Spinoza, see section 2.3 ):

[t]hey are bound up with one another, unconnected as they may seem. Widely different though they are, the two of them march in unison like a prisoner and the escort he is handcuffed to. Fear keeps pace with hope. Nor does their so moving together surprise me; both belong to a mind in suspense, to a mind in a state of anxiety through looking into the future. Both are mainly due to projecting our thoughts far ahead of us instead of adapting ourselves to the present. (Seneca, Letter 5.7–8; in: 1969: 38)

According to Seneca, we should avoid both fear and hope and instead focus on the present and cultivate tranquility of the soul.

Pre-Christian accounts see hope mostly as an attitude to reality that is based on insufficient insight into what is true or good. By contrast, Christian philosophers such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas analyze hope as one of the most central virtues of a believer: Hope, precisely in virtue of its capacity to justify action in a way which is not bound to knowledge, is a part of rational faith.

Even in Saint Paul’s argument for the extension of the Christian community beyond the Jewish law, hope plays a central role. Paul states that we can only hope for what is uncertain (Romans 8:24; see also Augustine, City of God , book XIX, §IV, 1960: 139). Nevertheless, such hope can be the product of the experience of suffering, if this experience is seen through the lens of faith (Romans 5:3–5) and if the desire to be saved from this suffering is supported by confidence in not being disappointed. Instead of backward-looking law-conformity (associated by Paul with the Jewish faith), it is such forward-looking hope that characterizes the appropriate relation to God. As an illustration, Paul describes Abraham as “hoping against hope” (Romans 4:18), emphasizing the way in which hope goes beyond the evidence.

Augustine of Hippo discusses hope systematically in his Enchiridion on Faith, Hope and Love (c. 420). Hope is distinguished from faith—which is also based on incomplete evidence—by two features: First, hope is necessarily directed to future events, whereas faith can also relate to past events (such as Christ’s resurrection). Second, hope only relates to what is good for the hopeful person, whereas faith can also relate to what is bad (such as punishment for one’s sins). Finally, hope, faith and love are seen as interconnected. Only if one loves the future fulfillment of God’s will and thus hopes for it can one arrive at the correct form of faith ( Enchiridion , II.7). As love provides the normative outlook that underlies hope and faith (and thus, in some sense, the desire-component of hope), love is seen as a more central virtue than hope ( Enchiridion , XXX.114).

The hope for a life after death also plays an important role in Augustine’s political philosophy. In the City of God , Augustine distinguishes the actual earthly city from the heavenly city that only exists in the hope placed in God ( City of God , book XV, §XXI, 1966: 541). The latter provides a reference point for a Christian view of politics. Hope, however, not only provides for a perspective on politics which surpasses the narrow perspective of classical politics (Dodaro 2007), but an appropriate theorizing of hope also modifies the understanding of traditional political virtues, as it redirects their purpose from the earthly to the heavenly city. One example of such a modification concerns punishment: Through hope, a Christian ‘statesman’ will redirect punishment away from an exclusive concern with proportionality towards the potential reform of the criminal ( City of God , book V, §XXIV, 1963: 263).

In one of his letters to Macedonius, a public official, Augustine finally emphasizes that the hope for a future life underlies all true human happiness, both on the level of the individual and of the state (Letter 155, Political Writings , §4–8, pp. 91–94). Thus, hope is not just of concern for individual believers but also for political leaders that are concerned with collective happiness, as paying attention to hope allows them to pursue a political constitution that allows true virtue of citizens to emerge (see also Dodaro 2007).

While Augustine is more or less exclusively concerned with the significance of hope for our pursuit of a good Christian life, Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae contains a systematic discussion of (ordinary) hope as a passion (ST I-II, q. 40) and as a theological virtue (ST II-II, qq. 17–22). The former is directed to finite, earthly goods, whereas hope as a theological virtue is directed to ultimate happiness in the union with God. Even though the two kinds of hope are clearly distinct, Aquinas provides a unified account of the formal features of their objects (I-II, q. 40, art.1) (see Bobier 2020a). The object of hope, he argues, is always thought to be good and future. Further, in contrast to mere desire, the objects of hope must be difficult to obtain but nevertheless in the realm of possibility (ST I-II 40.1). This rules out hope for that which is trivial to procure.

Regarding the rationality of hope, Aquinas has a nuanced view. On the one hand, he admits that a lack of experience can make one unaware of obstacles. This tendency (and drunkenness, ST I-II 40.6) can promote (irrational) hope. On the other hand, he assumes that hope can promote rational agency: As hope incorporates both knowledge of the possible and knowledge of the difficulties to reach the desired outcome, it can motivate agents to devote energy to their activities.

Because of this ambivalence, hope in the ordinary sense is not a virtue for Aquinas. As a passion, humans can display an excess and a deficiency of hope (ST II-II 17.5); furthermore, passions are not virtues by definition (Bobier 2018). This changes, however, as soon as we examine theological hope, i.e., the hope we can put in God. First, as primarily directed towards God, such hope does not know any excess. Second, we cannot understand theological hope as a passion. We must analyze it as a habit of the will. While hope as a passion can only be incited by sensible goods (and subsequently motivates action insofar as the subject takes herself to be capable of realizing that good), we can also hope for God’s assistance (ST II-II 17.1) in reaching eternal happiness (ST II-II 17.2). As eternal life and happiness are not sensible goods, this kind of hope cannot be a passion but must reside in the will (ST II-II 18.1). Note, however, that Aquinas describes the theological virtues as habits of the will of a special sort: They cannot be acquired by habituation, but can only be given by God’s grace (ST II-II 17.1, see Pinsent 2020 for an interpretation of hope as an “infused” virtue).

Because of these two features, hope is a theological virtue (ST II-II 17.5; see also 1 Corinthians 13). While love (or charity) is directed to God for the sake of unity, faith and hope are directed towards God with a view to some good to be obtained from that unity: Faith relates to God as a source of knowledge, hope relates to God as a source of goodness (ST II-II 17.6).

The rationality of theological hope can only be properly understood, according to Aquinas, when we acknowledge that hope has to be preceded by faith (which underlies the belief in the possibility of salvation), but, given faith, hope for the good of salvation is rational. In contrast to most modern discussions of hope, Aquinas and other Christian authors therefore see hope as compatible with confidence or even certainty about the hoped-for outcome while still excluding knowledge (Jeffrey 2020: 44). Despair, as caused either by the absence of faith or the desire to be saved, is sinful (ST II-II 20.1). As hope is, by definition, future-directed, it is only possible for human beings who are uncertain of whether they are blessed or damned, whereas love can persist even after their ultimate fate has been revealed (ST II-II 18.2–3).

In 17 th and 18 th century philosophy, many philosophers reject Aquinas’ division between different kinds of passions in favor of a moral psychology which classifies emotions and desires together as passions that generate action, of which hope is usually conceived as a species. Almost all authors mentioned in the following also embrace some version of the idea defining for the “standard account” that hope is based on uncertainty in belief together with a representation of an object as desirable (Blöser 2020a).

According to Descartes, hope is a weaker form of confidence ( Passions of the Soul , [1649] 1985: 389) and consists in a desire (a representation of an outcome to be both good for us and possible) together with a disposition to think of it as likely but not certain ( Passions of the Soul , [1649] 1985: 350f, 389). This means that hope and anxiety always accompany each other (in contrast to both despair and confidence which are absolute opposites). Hobbes adopts a similar analysis. For him, hope is a complex passion or a “pleasure of the mind”, i.e., a pleasure that arises not from direct sensation but from thinking. For Hobbes, the simplest building block underlying hope is appetite, and “appetite with an opinion of obtaining” is hope ( Leviathan , 36, I.VI.14). As in Descartes, hope serves as a building block for more complex mental phenomena, such as courage or confidence ( Leviathan , 36f, I.VI.17/19). But hope also plays a role in the mental activity of deliberation which is defined as the alternation of hope and fear with appetites and aversion ( Leviathan , 39, I.VI.49; see also Bobier 2020b). Hope—a term which Hobbes often uses more or less synonymously with (justified) expectation—plays an important role in the political application of his moral psychology: Not only is the equality in the state of nature defined as an equality of hope ( Leviathan , 83, I.XIII.3)—which makes it rational for everyone to pursue their individual advantage—the laws of nature also command one to seek peace where one has hope for obtaining it ( Leviathan , 87, I.XIV.4). Both the collective agency problem in the state of nature and the solution to it thus depend on what hopes individuals can rationally entertain.

Spinoza also defines the passion of hope as a form of pleasure ( Ethics III, P18, Spinoza [1677] 1985: 505) or joy that is mingled with sadness (due to the uncertainty of the outcome, see Short Treatise , book II, ch. IX, Spinoza [c. 1660] 1985: 113). In contrast to more modern definitions, Spinoza distinguishes the pleasure that is involved in hope from desire. Hope (in the Ethics ) is thus not necessarily connected to desire, but rather a way in which the mind is affected by the idea of a future event. In contrast to Hobbes and Descartes, Spinoza understands hope as fundamentally irrational. He argues that it must be the result of false belief inasmuch as it does not correctly represent that everything is governed by necessity ( Short Treatise , book II, ch. IX, [c. 1660] 1985: 113). Additionally, in the Ethics , Spinoza describes hope as one of the causes of superstition, especially as it is always accompanied by fear ( Ethics III, P50, [1677] 1985: 521). Such fear necessarily precludes it from being intrinsically good ( Ethics IV, P47, [1677] 1985: 573). This is also the reason why we should attempt to make ourselves independent from hope (although Gatens et al. (2021: 202) argue that Spinoza also has room for the idea of reasonable hopes).

Spinoza agrees with Hobbes, however, by ascribing political significance to hope. As he explains in the Theological-Political Treatise , the fact that people are governed by hope and fear makes them easy victims of superstition and false belief ( Theological-Political Treatise , [1670] 2002: 389); however, good laws can also take advantage of this and motivate people by arranging outcomes such that they can be motivated by hope ( Theological-Political Treatise , [1670] 2002: 439; see Gatens et al. 2021 for a discussion of the political significance of hope in Spinoza). The same importance he places on hope also underlies his social contract argument. Like Hobbes, he argues that the only reason why people remain faithful to the social contract or carry out the orders of a sovereign has to be found in their hope of obtaining a certain good this way ( Theological-Political Treatise , [1670] 2002: 529). Even a people as a whole is always united by common hopes and fears ( Political Treatise , [1675] 2002: 700), but hope rather than fear is dominant in the case of free peoples (ibid.). This leads Spinoza to proclaim hope and fear as the basis of political power in the Political Treatise ([1675] 2002: 686).

Hume’s account is another example of an analysis of hope as a passion—modified, however, by the specific approach he takes to human psychology. For Hume, hope is a “direct passion” that is produced when the mind considers events that have a probability between absolute certainty and absolute impossibility. Hume describes probability-beliefs as an effect of the mind entertaining contrary views—of an event or object as either existent or non-existent—in quick succession after another. Each of these views gives rise to either joy or sorrow (when the object is something good or bad) which linger longer in the mind than the original imagination of the object’s existence or non-existence. When considering objects that are probable, but not certain, the mind is thus affected by a mixture of joy and sorrow that, depending on the predominant element, can be called hope or fear.

It is after this manner that hope and fear arise from the different mixture of these opposite passions of grief and joy, and from their imperfect union and conjunction. ( Treatise , [1738] 2007: 283)

As Hume sees hope as a necessary effect of the consideration of an uncertain event, it follows that we cannot but hope for any positive outcome about which we are uncertain. The uncertainty in question can be based on the actual uncertainty of the event but also on uncertain belief.

While hope is primarily discussed as a feature of the psychology of individual humans in the 17 th and 18 th century and, as a non-cognitive attitude, taken to be neither essentially rational nor irrational, it is given much greater significance by Immanuel Kant who adopts a much more substantial (and complex) view of the connection between hope and reason.

Kant’s definition of hope as an “unexpected offering of the prospect of immeasurable good fortune” (AE 7:255) in the Anthropology seems to remain within the traditional discourse about hope. However, Kant eventually accords hope a central place in his philosophical system by focusing on hope as an attitude that allows human reason to relate to those questions which cannot be answered by experience. In the Critique of Pure Reason , Kant states the question “For what may I hope?” as one of the fundamental questions of philosophy, after “What can I know?” and “What should I do?” (A805/B833). This question, as far as its answer depends on claims regarding the consequences of moral righteousness and the existence of God, is “simultaneously practical and theoretical” (A805/B833) and it is answered by religion (AE 9:25). Kant’s account of hope consequently connects his moral philosophy with his views on religion. He emphasizes the rational potential of such hope, but he also makes clear that rational hope is intimately connected to religious faith, i.e., the belief in God.

Kant considers three primary objects of hope in his writings: (1) One’s own happiness (as part of the highest good), (2) one’s own moral progress (in the Religion ) and (3) the moral improvement of the human race as a whole (in his historical-political writings).

(1) In the Canon of the Critique of Pure Reason , Kant states clearly: “all hope concerns happiness” (A805/B833). However, it is not the hope for one’s own happiness simpliciter that is at stake, but the hope for happiness that one deserves because of one’s moral conduct (A809/B837). Kant argues that there is a necessary connection between the moral law and the hope for happiness. However, this connection exists only “in the idea of pure reason”, not in nature (A809/B837). A proportionality between happiness and morality can only be thought of as necessary in an intelligible, moral world, where we abstract from all hindrances to moral conduct. In the empirical world of experience, there is no guarantee for a necessary connection between moral conduct and happiness. Thus, Kant concludes, we may reasonably hope for happiness in proportion to morality only if we introduce the additional non-empirical assumption of “a highest reason, which commands in accordance with moral laws, as […] the cause of nature” (A810/B838). This way, Kant connects morality and happiness in the object of hope and secures its possibility in a highest reason, i.e., in God. Kant calls the connection between “happiness in exact proportion with the morality of rational beings, through which they are worthy of it” the highest good (A814/B842). A peculiarity of Kant’s treatment of hope in the Canon is that hope for the highest good is apparently considered necessary for moral motivation (A813/B841)—a thesis he rejects in his later writings.

Kant’s account of hope for happiness presents hope as very closely connected to Kant’s concept of faith. This becomes obvious in the Critique of Practical Reason . Kant argues that in order to believe in the possibility of the highest good—and we have to believe in this possibility, as it is prescribed by the categorical imperative—we have to believe in or postulate the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. Kant himself uses both the concept of belief or faith and the concept of hope in explaining the content of the postulate of immortality: we must presuppose immortality in order to conceive of the highest good as “practically possible” and we may therefore “hope for a further uninterrupted continuance of this [moral] progress, however long his existence may last, even beyond this life” (AE 5:123). Thus, Kant can be understood as arguing in favor of a traditional religious form of hope—hope for a life after death or immortality of the soul. However, he points out that immortality is not a ‘mere’ hope (i.e., a hope for an outcome where we lack evidence for the claim that it is really possible), but that reason makes it necessary (as a consequence of the categorical imperative) to assume that immortality is possible.

Whereas some Kant interpreters do not clearly distinguish between hope and faith (Rossi 1982, Flikschuh 2010), Andrew Chignell emphasizes that hope is an attitude that is distinct from faith or belief and that Kant follows an “assert-the-stronger” policy: He asserts the strongest justified attitude towards p (justified belief), even if one holds also weaker attitudes towards p (hope) (Chignell 2013: 198). O’Neill interprets Kant as holding that hope provides a reason for religious belief: Belief in God and immortality is not “merely possible”, but a matter of “taking a hopeful view of human destiny” (O’Neill 1996: 281). According to O’Neill, the reason for faith is the hope that moral action is successful, i.e., that our moral intention can make a difference to the natural order.

(2) In the Religion , Kant envisages one’s own moral improvement as an object of hope, which requires that one change one’s fundamental maxim from a bad one to a good one. The problem is that on the one hand, we have a duty to improve morally and hence must be capable of doing so (AE 6:45), but on the other hand, it is unclear how this can be possible if one’s fundamental maxim is corrupt. Since we cannot know how this is possible, moral improvement remains an object of hope. Kant suggests two alternative hopes: the hope to, through one’s “own efforts”, become a better person (AE 6:46) and the hope that what exceeds one’s power will be taken care of by God (AE 6:52).

(3) In his political and historical writings, Kant considers another object of reasonable hope: the hope for historical progress towards a morally better, peaceful future. We find a similar relationship between rational belief and hope as with regard to God and immortality: Kant sees the moral improvement of the human race as a hope that is based on a transcendental assumption (in the mode of faith) in a teleological order of nature. Kant assigns “hope for better times” an important function for moral motivation by claiming that without it, the desire to benefit the common good would “never have warmed the human heart” (AE 8:309). Kant recommends a view of human history with a “confirmation bias” (Kleingeld 2012: 175), i.e., with a view to the realization of moral demands.

Aside from these systematic issues regarding hope in Kant’s philosophy, it is worth summarizing some general features that Kant touches upon concerning hope. Regarding a descriptive account of what it means that a person hopes that p , one can extract two necessary conditions from Kant’s remarks that are in line with the standard account of hope: The object of hope must be uncertain, and the person must wish for it. Both conditions can be found in the following passage from Perpetual Peace :

[R]eason is not enlightened enough to survey the entire series of predetermining causes that foretell with certainty the happy or unhappy consequences of humankind’s activities in accordance with the mechanism of nature (although it does let us hope that these will be in accord with our wishes). (AE 8:370)

In regard to the normative conditions under which hope is rational, Kant is sensitive to a theoretical and practical dimension: He focuses on hopes that are (necessarily) connected with a moral duty and thus involve a practical necessity . From a theoretical point of view, Kant’s main concern is to show that these hopes are not impossible. While he holds that empirical evidence permits hoping as long as there is no proof to the contrary (AE 8:309f.), this minimal criterion is connected to the idea that hope is based on transcendental assumptions (i.e., the existence of God, immortality, and a teleology of nature) (Blöser 2020b).

Kant’s account of hope has recently attracted considerable interest, both regarding matters of Kant scholarship and the application and development of a Kantian notion of hope in various contexts. As to Kant scholarship, Düring and Düwell (2017) follow Beyleveld and Ziche (2015) in emphasizing the relevance of the Critique of Judgment for an understanding of Kantian hope –– they view hope as aesthetically structured . Zuckert (2018) argues that Kantian hope is a feeling . Danziger (2020) makes the case that hope plays a role even in Kant’s theoretical philosophy.

As to the application and development of Kant’s account of hope, Chignell (2018) reconstructs Kant’s moral argument for faith in the existence of God (where hope plays a crucial role) and explores its relevance for political contexts (the food system), where the chances that an individual will make a difference are very low. Similarly, Huber (2019) argues that Kantian hope can be seen as playing an important role in preventing demoralization and sustaining the commitment to political action when the prospects of success are dim. Dineen (2020) delineates a Kantian conception of hope that might inform practical education, because it warrants us in thinking that we are able to set and achieve ends, even in light of imperfection and vulnerability. Speight (2021) shows how Walter Benjamin took up and transformed Kant’s account of hope by shifting from a personal to a collective perspective on hope and to a concern with the past.

In Post-Kantian philosophy, the role of hope is disputed. One can identify two distinct approaches. On the one hand, there are authors like Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Camus who reject hope, not so much as epistemically irrational but as an expression of a misguided relationship to the world that is unable to face the demands of human existence. On the other hand, authors like Søren Kierkegaard and Gabriel Marcel take hope to be a means to overcome the limitations of ordinary experience.

Kierkegaard examines hope primarily as it is connected to religious faith. However, whereas Kant aims to show that our belief in God and hope for the highest good is possible within the limits of reason, Kierkegaard is keen to emphasize that (eternal) hope must transcend all understanding. As an antidote to despair, hope plays a positive role in Kierkegaard’s work, culminating in his advice: “a person’s whole life should be the time of hope!” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 251). In Works of Love , Kierkegaard defines hope in its most general form as a relation to the possibility of the good: “To relate oneself expectantly to the possibility of the good is to hope ” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 249).

Most interpreters of Kierkegaard emphasize a distinction between “heavenly” (or eternal) hope and “earthly” (or temporal) hope (Bernier 2015; Fremstedal 2012; McDonald 2014). In some passages, Kierkegaard indeed seems to assume that there is also “natural hope” (Kierkegaard [1851] 1990: 82) or hope “for some earthly advantage” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 261). However, strictly speaking, Kierkegaard considers this the “wrong language usage” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 261). He completes his definition as follows: “To relate oneself expectantly to the possibility of the good is to hope , which cannot be any temporal expectancy but is an eternal hope” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 249). On Kierkegaard’s view, hope—strictly speaking—is thus always directed towards the eternal, “since hope pertains to the possibility of the good, and thereby to the eternal” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 249). This is connected to Kierkegaard’s account of time. Hope, as a form of expectation, is an attitude towards the possible. While expectation, generally speaking, relates to the possibility of both good and evil (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 249), hope relates only to the possibility of good. The possibility of the good, on Kierkegaard’s account, is a feature of the eternal (“in time, the eternal is the possible, the future”).

While the expectation of earthly goods is often disappointed—either because it is fulfilled too late or not at all (Kierkegaard [1843–1844] 1990: 215)—eternal hope cannot in principle be disappointed (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 261–3, Kierkegaard [1843–1844] 1990: 216). Eternal hope means “at every moment always to hope all things” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 249). Kierkegaard mostly equates eternal hope with Christian hope (McDonald 2014: 164).

In order to understand the relation between earthly and heavenly hope, it is helpful to consider the dialectical progression of hope that Kierkegaard presents in the Nachlaß (Malantschuk (ed.) 1978: 247). There is a kind of hope that occurs spontaneously in youth, which appears to be a pre-reflexive hope, a kind of immediate trust or confidence (Fremstedal 2012: 52). It is followed by the “supportive calculation of the understanding”, i.e., by hope involving the reflection about the probability of the hoped-for outcome. This (earthly) hope is often disappointed by the lateness or non-arrival of the expected goods. This disappointment is necessary in order to acquire eternal hope, which “is against hope, because according to that purely natural hope there was no more hope; consequently this hope is against hope” (Kierkegaard [1851] 1990: 82). Kierkegaard’s interpretation of Abraham’s story in Fear and Trembling can be understood as an illustration of this kind of hope (Lippitt 2015).

Whereas earthly hope is judged by the understanding according to its probability, eternal hope exceeds the limits of understanding. It is therefore commonly judged as irrational or as “lunacy” (Kierkegaard [1851] 1990: 83). Kierkegaard does not explicitly take up the question of when hope is rational—presumably because eternal hope exceeds reason—but he frames the question of good or bad hope in terms of “honor” and “shame” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 260f.). He observes that a person who entertained an earthly hope that has not been fulfilled is very often criticized as imprudent (or “put to shame” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 260)) because this is supposed to show that she “miscalculated” (ibid.). Kierkegaard objects to this perspective of “sagacity” that judges hope only with regard to its fulfillment. Rather, we should pay attention to the value of the hoped-for ends (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 261). Eternal hope, on this account, “is never put to shame” (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 260, see also 263). Further, and in line with the Christian tradition, he argues that the value of hope depends on its relation to love: We hope for ourselves if and only if we hope for others, and only to the same degree. Love

is the middle term: without love, no hope for oneself; with love, hope for all others—and to the same degree one hopes for oneself, to the same degree one hopes for others, since to the same degree one is loving. (Kierkegaard [1847] 1995: 260)

Thus, similarly to Kant’s account, one’s hope stands in a proportional relationship to an ethical demand. However, Kierkegaard does not see hope limited by our meeting an ethical demand.

Rather, Kierkegaard sees the proportional relation as determining whether we are in fact hoping , and the actual degree of our expectancy. Our hope for ourselves is only realizable in and through our hope for another. (Bernier 2015: 315)

As already mentioned, Schopenhauer represents the opposite approach in post-Kantian philosophy. Even though he holds that it is natural for humans to hope ( Parerga and Paralipomena II, 1851: §313), he also claims that we generally ought to hope less than we are inclined to, calling hope a “folly of the heart” (ibid.). Ambivalent remarks concerning the value of hope (he interprets Pandora’s box as containing all the goods, Parerga and Paralipomena II, 1851: §200) can be found throughout his writings, but on the whole, criticism prevails. There are two aspects to his critical evaluation of hope: hope’s influence on the intellect and its role for happiness. In Schopenhauer’s dichotomy of the will and the intellect, hope is an expression of the will or, more precisely, an inclination. One reason why hope is problematic with respect to its influence on the intellect is that it presents what we wish for as probable ( The World as Will and Representation , vol. 2, [1818] 1958: 216, 218). Schopenhauer concedes that hope sharpens our perception insofar as it makes certain features of the world salient. But he links this thesis to the stronger claim that hope may make it (often) impossible to grasp things that are relevant. Hope thus distorts cognition in a problematic way because it hinders the intellect in grasping the truth. However, Schopenhauer also concedes the possibility of a positive effect of hope, namely as motivation and support of the intellect ( The World as Will and Representation , vol. 2, [1818] 1958: 221).

With regard to its contribution to personal happiness, Schopenhauer mentions a positive role of hope in his comparison of the life of animals with that of humans. He states that animals experience less pleasure than humans, because they lack hope and therefore the pleasures of anticipation. But hope can not only lead to disappointment when the hoped-for object is not realized, it can even be disappointing when it is fulfilled if the outcome does not provide as much satisfaction as was expected ( The World as Will and Representation , vol. 2 [1818] 1958: 573). Schopenhauer also criticizes Kant’s idea that we may hope for our own happiness in proportion to our moral conduct (the highest good). This conception of hope, according to Schopenhauer, leads Kant to remain implicitly committed to a form of eudaimonism ( Basis of Morality II, §3, 34).

Thus, even though Schopenhauer occasionally hints at positive aspects of hope, his overall evaluation of hope is negative. This is consistent with his view that life is filled with unavoidable frustration and suffering, and that suffering can be reduced only by getting rid of one’s desires. Ideally, this amounts to the “negation of the will to life” ( The World as Will and Representation , vol. 1, [1818] 2010: 405). The “temptations of hope” ( The World as Will and Representation , vol. 1, [1818] 2010: 419) function as obstacles to the negation of the will, whereas hopelessness can help to transform one’s mind and acquire “genuine goodness and purity of mind” ( The World as Will and Representation , vol. 1, [1818] 2010: 420). Interestingly, Schopenhauer does have sympathies with the idea of salvation, which lies in the denial of the will (Schopenhauer [1818] 1958: 610), that is, he seems to subscribe to a kind of transcendent hope for an end of all suffering (Schulz 2002: 125). Even though he does not say so, one could characterize his view as a “hope for the end of hope”.

Nietzsche is perhaps the most famous critic of hope in the post-Kantian tradition. In the third preface to Zarathustra , he warns: “do not believe those who speak to you of extraterrestrial hopes!” ( Zarathustra , [1883–85] 2006: 6) Similarly, in Beyond Good and Evil (1886) he opposes all notions of hope “in hidden harmonies, in future blessedness and justice” ( Beyond Good and Evil , [1886] 2008: 562). In his interpretation of Pandora’s myth (Human, All Too Human , 1878: §71), he calls hope “the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man”. However, a closer look reveals that, outside his criticism of religious and metaphysical hopes, he also hints at a positive perspective on hope: “ that mankind be redeemed from revenge: that to me is the bridge to the highest hope and a rainbow after long thunderstorms” ( Zarathustra , [1883–85] 2006: 77). Nietzsche counts hope among the “strong emotions” (Nietzsche [1887] 2006: 103), next to anger, fear, voluptuousness, and revenge. Furthermore, he repeatedly characterizes hope using the metaphor of a rainbow: “hope is the rainbow over the cascading stream of life” [“Die Hoffnung ist der Regenbogen über den herabstürzenden jähen Bach des Lebens”] (as cited in Bidmon 2016: 188). However, the metaphor of the “rainbow” is ambivalent. On the one hand, it is connected to Nietzsches vision of the “overman”: “Do you not see it, the rainbow and the bridges of the overman?” ( Zarathustra , [1883–85] 2006: 36). On the other hand, however, the rainbow is elusive and withdraws itself—Nietzsche calls it an “illusory bridge” ( Zarathustra , [1883–85] 2006: 175; see also Bidmon 2016: 188f.). In Beyond Good and Evil , he finally claims that we should “fix our hopes” in “new philosophers”, “in minds strong and original enough to initiate opposite estimates of value” ( Beyond Good and Evil , [1886] 2008: 600). In Human, All Too Human , he similarly envisages change of the social order as an object of hope:

[W]e are only reasonably entitled to hope when we believe that we and our equals have more strength in heart and head than the representatives of the existing state of things. ( Human, All Too Human , 1878: §443)

Reasonable hope is thus grounded in a trust in one’s capacity to bring about the desired outcome. However, Nietzsche adds that usually this hope amounts to “presumption, an over-estimation ” (ibid.).

Camus follows Nietzsche in declaring (religious) hope the worst of all evils (Judaken and Bernasconi 2012: 264). His critique of hope is linked to the idea that the human existence is absurd. The “elusive feeling of absurdity” (Camus 1955: 12) is characterized by a discrepancy: The human mind asks fundamental questions about the meaning of life, but the world does not provide answers. Camus’ understanding of the absurd is best captured in the image of Sisyphus, who exemplifies life’s absurdity in his “futile and hopeless labor” (Camus 1955: 119). The assumption that life is absurd goes hand in hand with the denial of religious hope for salvation. In his early writing Nuptials ([1938] 1970), Camus opposes religious ideas about the immortal soul and hope for an afterlife. In fact, “[ h ] ope is the error Camus wishes to avoid” (Aronson 2012). Even though Camus is often regarded as an existentialist, he distances himself from this movement. One reason is precisely his disagreement with the account of hope of the existentialists, Kierkegaard in particular, of which he says that “they deify what crushes them and find reason to hope in what impoverishes them. That forced hope is religious in all of them” (Camus 1955: 32).

As already mentioned, one kind of hope that Camus flatly rejects is religious hope for a life beyond death. A second kind of hope, primarily discussed in The Rebel , is the hope founded on a great cause beyond oneself, i.e., “hope of another life one must ‘deserve’” (Camus 1955: 8). The problem with hoping for social utopias, according to Camus, is that they tend to be dictatorial. A further reason to reject such hopes seems to be that they distract from the life of the senses, from the here-and-now and from appreciating the beauty of this life. We also do not need hope to cope with the hardships of life and death: Instead of hoping for a life after death (or committing suicide), one should be conscious of death as “the most obvious absurdity” (Camus 1955: 59) and “die unreconciled and not of one’s own free will” (Camus 1955: 55). Sisyphus exemplifies the attitude of lucidity and consciousness that Camus recommends. Even though he does not hope for a better future,—or rather because he does not hope for a better future—“[o]ne must imagine Sisyphus happy” (Camus 1955: 123).

Despite his criticism of hope, Camus states that it is (nearly) impossible to live without hope, even if one wishes to be free of hope (Camus 1955: 113). Presumably this claim is only descriptive, stating a fact about human psychology. However, in a letter to his friend and poet René Char, Camus called The Rebel a “livre d’espoir” [book of hope] (Schlette 1995: 130). On that note, it has recently been suggested that Camus allows for a positive view of hope—a kind of “étrange espoir” [strange hope] that is directed towards the possibilities inherent in the present (Schlette 1995: 134) and that is characterized by humanism and solidarity with all human beings (Bidmon 2016: 233).

Whereas the positive role of hope in Camus is at best hidden, it surfaces prominently in the writings of Marcel. At the heart of Marcel’s account of hope is the distinction between “‘I hope…’, the absolute statement, and ‘I hope that…’” (Marcel [1952] 2010: 26). Marcel is mostly interested in a general, absolute hope, which he conceives as “the act by which […] temptation to despair is actively or victoriously overcome” (Marcel [1952] 2010: 30f.). One way in which Marcel characterizes the “mystery” (Marcel [1952] 2010: 29) of hope is by alluding to the connection between hope and patience (Marcel [1952] 2010: 33). Hope implies the respect for “personal rhythm” (ibid.) and “confidence in a certain process of growth and development” (Marcel [1952] 2010: 34). Marcel takes up the question of the rationality of hope in asking whether hope is an illusion that consists in taking one’s wishes for reality (Marcel [1952] 2010: 39). He answers that this objection against the value of hope applies primarily to hopes that are directed towards a particular outcome (“to hope that X”), but it does not apply when hope transcends the imagination. Because the person who hopes simpliciter does not anticipate a particular event, her hope cannot be judged with regard to whether it is likely to be fulfilled. Marcel illustrates this with the example of an invalid (Marcel [1952] 2010: 40). If this person hopes that he will be healthy at a certain point in time, there is the danger of disappointment and despair if it does not happen. However, absolute hope, Marcel explains, implies a “method of surmounting”: The patient has absolute hope if he realizes that “everything is not necessarily lost if there is no cure” (Marcel [1952] 2010: 40). Being a “theistic Existentialist” (Treanor and Sweetman 2016) like Kierkegaard, Marcel ultimately connects this possibility of absolute hope to the existence of God. Absolute hope is necessarily connected to faith in God and is a “response of the creature to the infinite Being to whom it is conscious of owing everything that it has” (Marcel [1952] 2010: 41).

Even though hope rarely features explicitly in pragmatist writings, it has been suggested that pragmatist accounts of hope can be found in the works of William James and John Dewey (Fishman and McCarthy 2007; Green 2008; Koopman 2006, 2009; Rorty 1999; Shade 2001). As Patrick Shade notes, the issue of hope is “implicit in most pragmatic philosophies”, as it is related to central pragmatist topics, such as meliorism and faith, and particular hopes for social progress (Shade 2001: 9f.). Sarah Stitzlein (2020) argues that a conception of hope as a set of habits unites the understanding of hope in the writings of the classical pragmatists (Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey) and is further developed in the social and political writings of recent pragmatists (Richard Rorty, Judith Green, Cornel West, Patrick Shade, Colin Koopman).

Indeed, James’ concept of faith in The Will to Believe is closely linked to hope. In his essay, James aims to offer a “justification of faith, a defense of our right to adopt a believing attitude in religious matters” (James [1897] 2015: 1). Even though his primary subject is religious faith, he points out that a structurally similar justification of faith or trust can be applied to social questions. It can be rational to believe that the other is trustworthy or likes us, even though we may not be able to prove it. Three criteria have to be fulfilled for faith to be rational: the question cannot be decided scientifically, the belief may be true, and we are better off (even now) if we believe. In his argument, James draws a link to the concept of hope when claiming that the skeptic or agnostic attitude is not more rational than the attitude of faith. The skeptic holds “that to yield to our fear of its being error is wiser and better than to yield to our hope that it may be true” (James [1897] 2015: 27). James criticizes this attitude: “what proof is there that dupery through hope is so much worse than dupery through fear?” (James [1897] 2015: 27).

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).

Drawing on James’ account of conversion in the Varieties of Religious Experience , Sheehey argues that James can be seen as advocating a concept of hope that does not rely on the idea of progress, but relies on a “temporality of crisis” that allows for an understanding of historical change beyond progress or decline (Sheehey 2019).

The contemporary debate about hope in analytic philosophy is primarily concerned with providing a definition of hope, explicating standards of rationality and explaining the value of hope. The debate takes as its starting point what has been called the “orthodox definition” (Martin 2013: 11) or the “standard account” (Meirav 2009: 217), which analyzes “hope that p ” in terms of a wish or desire for p and a belief concerning p ’s possibility. R.S. Downie is representative of this position:

There are two criteria which are independently necessary and jointly sufficient for ‘hope that’. The first is that the object of hope must be desired by the hoper. […] The second […] is that the object of hope falls within a range of physical possibility which includes the improbable but excludes the certain and the merely logically possible. (Downie 1963: 248f.)

Similarly, J. P. Day writes:

“ A hopes that p ” is true iff “ A wishes that p , and A thinks that p has some degree of probability, however small” is true. (Day 1969: 89)

The desire-condition captures the intuition that we only hope for what we take to be good (at least in some respect) or desirable. The belief component is meant to capture the intuition that we do not normally hope for what we think is impossible (or certain), whereas this is not a problem for desires or wishes (in e.g., “I wish I could fly”).

Most authors implicitly assume that the hoped-for event is in the future. In ordinary usage however, people often express hopes regarding past events of which they do not have complete knowledge. An example is the hope that someone did not suffer excessively when they died. While some authors consider this use of language to be parasitic on the future-directed case (McGeer 2004: 104), others argue that these are genuine cases of hope (Martin 2013: 68).

Another question in this context concerns the concept of possibility that is at issue: It seems clear that we cannot hope for the logically impossible, but can we hope for the physically impossible, e.g., that the dead will rise tomorrow? Downie, for example, holds that logical possibility is not enough (Downie 1963: 249), whereas Chignell does not exclude the possibility of hope for something which is physically impossible (Chignell 2013: 201ff.). Whatever the answer to this question, all views (except Wheatley 1958) allow for cases of hope in which the outcome is extremely improbable; in other words, no lower bound to the probability is required for hoping (Meirav 2009: 219).

Objections have been raised against the idea that the standard definition provides sufficient conditions for hope. There are two main lines of objections: the “despair objection” and the “substantial hope objection” (Milona 2020a: 103). According to the “despair objection”, two people can have identical desires and beliefs about the possibility of an outcome, and yet one of them may hope for the outcome while the other despairs of it (Meirav 2009). The “substantial hope objection” holds that even though the standard definition might capture a minimal sense of hope, it fails to explain the special value of more “substantial” kinds of hope. In particular, it fails to explain how hope can have special motivating force in difficult circumstances, especially when the probability of the desired outcome is low (Pettit 2004; Calhoun 2018). These objections either lead to the claim that the standard definition must be revised or motivate the proposal that hope is entirely different from desire and belief, and hence irreducible to them.

Luc Bovens suggests that besides desire and belief, hope also involves mental imaging (Bovens 1999). However, it has been objected that mental imaging is already entailed by desire (and hence, that the standard definition can account for this) and that it is still not able to distinguish hope from despair, since a despairing person can still form mental images about the desired outcome. Andrew Chignell suggests a variant of Bovens’ account, although he does not require imaging but a specific kind of attention: A subject who hopes is disposed to focus on the desired outcome under the aspect of its possibility , while a despairing subject focuses on the outcome under the aspect of its improbability (Chignell forthcoming).

According to Meirav’s “External Factor Account” (Meirav 2009: 230), hope also involves an attitude towards an external factor (e.g., nature, fate, God) on which the realization of the hoped-for end causally depends. “If one views the external factor as good, then one hopes for the prospect. If one views it as not good, then one despairs of it” (Meirav 2009: 230). However, it is doubtful whether Meirav’s account is applicable to cases of hope where the realization of the outcome depends on luck (e.g., hoping to win the lottery). Further, it seems that one might hope even in circumstances where one believes the external factor to be bad, e.g., in unjust political circumstances.

While Meirav aims to answer the despair objection, Philip Pettit and Cheshire Calhoun suggest solutions to the substantial hope objection. In order to capture the motivating power of hope, Pettit distinguishes the “superficial” kind of hope described by the orthodox definition from a more “substantial” hope (Pettit 2004: 154). He construes substantial hope as acting on a belief that the agent does not really hold:

Hope will consist in acting as if a desired prospect is going to obtain or has a good chance of obtaining, just as precaution consists in acting as if this were the case with some feared prospect. (Pettit 2004: 158)

However, in typical cases, a hopeful person does not describe herself as acting as if the chances were higher, but as taking the chances as they are as good enough to try (Martin 2013: 23). Cheshire Calhoun (2018) shares Adrienne Martin’s criticism and argues that we need to distinguish a ‘planning idea’ from a ‘phenomenological idea’ of the future: The third component of hope besides desire and belief, according to her, is “ a phenomenological idea of the determinate future whose content includes success ” (Calhoun 2018: 86). This phenomenological idea, she argues, has motivational effects independently of the agent’s desires.

According to Martin’s suggestion (Martin 2013), hope involves two more elements in addition to belief and desire: First, the agent must see or treat her belief about the possibility of the outcome’s occurring as licensing hopeful activities, i.e., as not advising against some specific activities. Second, the agent must treat her attraction to the outcome as a practical reason to engage in the activities characteristic of hope. Martin calls her account the Incorporation Thesis , which refers to the fact that the hoping person incorporates the desire-element into her rational scheme of ends.

Martin’s proposal has been criticized as being overly reflective and unable to account for “recalcitrant” hopes where the hoping person does not see herself as justified in her hopeful activities (Milona and Stockdale 2018). Milona and Stockdale offer an account of hope that is inspired by the philosophy of emotions: They describe hope as a kind of perceptual state that involves a “hopeful” feeling.

There is an ever-increasing number of accounts that aim to remedy the shortcomings of the standard definition (see also Kwong 2019, Palmqvist 2021). The discussion seems to come full circle with Michael Milona’s return to the standard definition: Rather than augmenting the standard account, he suggests that one should employ a rich notion of desire and a suitable account of the relation between the desire and the belief—the belief in the possibility of the outcome must be in the “cognitive base” of the desire (Milona 2019).

The view that hope can be reduced to desires and beliefs (and a third factor) is not without alternative, however. Segal and Textor (2015) argue that hope is a primitive mental state that can be characterized by its functional role; Blöser (2019) argues that hope is an irreducible concept . This latter view is compatible with ontological variety and the view that different manifestations of hope are related in terms of family resemblance.

As for the norms of hope, there is consensus regarding the point that there is a theoretical (or epistemic) and a practical aspect to the rationality of hope. On the theoretical side, the question is whether the outcome is indeed possible (this amounts to evaluating hope in terms of its correctness) and whether the person is justified in her taking the outcome to be possible (this amounts to evaluating hope in terms of justification or responsiveness to reasons). One question of debate is whether the outcome must also be probable to a certain degree in order for hope to be rational (for an affirmative answer, see Moellendorf 2020 and Stockdale 2021). Andy Mueller captures the epistemic rationality of hope by specifying the idea that “hoping that p” is rationally incompatible with “knowing that not-p” (Mueller 2021: 45). (On the relation between hope and knowledge, see also Benton 2021).

On the practical side, most authors focus on the instrumental rationality of hope. Martin holds that hope is rational “so long as it promotes her [the agent’s] rational ends to do these things [i.e. engage in hopeful activities such as acting to promote the end, fantasizing about the outcome, entertaining certain feelings of anticipation]” (Martin 2013). Similarly, Pettit emphasizes the instrumental value hope has for the pursuit of our ends (Pettit 2004: 161).

However, the practical rationality of hope does not seem to be exhausted by instrumental considerations. Bovens argues that in cases where hoping has no instrumental value (because we cannot help bring about the desired state), hope can still have intrinsic value in virtue of its concomitant mental imaging: This characteristic of hope is responsible for its intrinsic value in three respects: First, hope has intrinsic value because the mental imaging connected to it (that is, the imaginative anticipation of the fulfillment of one’s hope) is pleasurable in itself (Bovens 1999: 675f.). Second, hope has epistemic value because it increases one’s self-understanding. Third, hope has intrinsic worth because it is constitutive of love towards others and towards oneself, which are intrinsically valuable activities. It is in virtue of mental imaging that hope is intimately connected to love, because spending mental energy in thinking about the well-being of another person is constitutive of loving her. Bloeser and Stahl (2017) argue that certain hopes—fundamental hopes—can be rational in virtue of their contribution to the practical identity of the hoping person.

Finally, it is a matter of debate how the theoretical and the practical dimension of rationality are related. On Martin’s account, the practical dimension has priority. Miriam Schleiffer McCormick, by contrast, holds that the theoretical and practical dimensions equally contribute to hope’s overall rationality and are intertwined (McCormick 2017).

Another approach to the value of hope explores the prospects of understanding hope as a virtue. Michael Milona interprets hope as a moral virtue along the lines of “getting one’s priorities straight” (Milona 2020b). (For another attempt to understand hope as a moral virtue, see Han-Pile/Stern, forthcoming; for a critical view of such an enterprise, see Bobier 2018.) Michael Lamb aims to apply the structure of Thomas Aquinas’ theological virtue of hope to argue that hope can be a democratic virtue that perfects acts of hoping in fellow citizens to achieve democratic goods (Lamb 2016). Nancy Snow (2013) proposes that hope can be understood as an intellectual virtue. (For a critical assessment of Snow’s approach, see Cobb 2015.)

Accounts of hope as a virtue suggest that not all instances of hope can be described as “hope that p ”, i.e., as propositional hopes that the standard definition and its successors aim to analyze. There are two kinds of non-propositional hope that are subject to debate (see Rioux 2021): First, as Lamb’s account suggests, we might have hope in a person, which Adrienne Martin calls “interpersonal hope” (Martin 2020). Second, it has been suggested that there is an attitude of indeterminate hope that is able to survive the loss of particular, determinate hopes. The distinction between “hope that” and hope without a determinate object has been introduced into the philosophical discourse by Gabriel Marcel and has recently been taken up (with or without explicit reference to Marcel) by otherwise different accounts. Joseph Godfrey calls hope without object “fundamental hope” and bases his account on an analysis of Bloch, Kant and Marcel (Godfrey 1987). Patrick Shade’s pragmatist theory distinguishes particular hopes and hopefulness as “an openness to possibilities that are meaningful and promising for us” (Shade 2001: 139). Jonathan Lear similarly describes “radical hope” as a sense of a future in which “something good will emerge” (Lear 2006: 94), even though all particular hopes were destroyed; and Matthew Ratcliffe takes such radical hope as an instance of “pre-intentional hope”, which is

a kind of general orientation or sense of how things are with the world, in the context of which intentional states of the kind “I hope that p ” are possible. (Ratcliffe 2013: 602)

Psychologists and psychoanalysts have systematically investigated hope since the 1950s (Frank 1968, for an overview, see Gallagher et al. 2020). In many of these first studies, hope was seen as a cognitive process of directing agency that rests on the perception of an outcome as important for an agent to achieve and as having a certain probability (Stotland 1969). While this understanding of hope deviates from the standard philosophical account (see section 3) by requiring a minimal probability, it continues to play a major role in the current psychological literature.

Currently, the most influential psychological approach to hope is Charles Snyder’s hope theory (for an overview, see Rand and Cheavens 2009). Snyder defines hope as follows:

Within a goal-setting framework, we propose that there are two major, interrelated elements of hope. First, we hypothesize that hope is fueled by the perception of successful agency related to goals. The agency component refers to a sense of successful determination in meeting goals in the past, present, and future. Second, we hypothesize that hope is influenced by the perceived availability of successful pathways related to goals. (Snyder et al. 1991: 570)

On this basis, Snyder and others have developed various measures of hope, such as the Adult Hope Scale (ibid.), and the State Hope Scale (Snyder et al. 1996) that have received strong experimental support and are widely used globally (see Gallagher et al. 2020: 193–196 and Rose and Sieben 2018 for discussion of other measures).

Several objections have been raised against Snyder’s analysis of hope. One is that the “perception of agency” relates both to the past and the future and therefore measures a general trait of hopefulness rather than the hope for specific outcomes. As a response, psychologists have developed further “domain-specific” hope scales (Lopez et al. 2000: 61). A second question concerns the issue of whether Snyder’s definition of hope is sufficiently distinct from optimism (see Miceli and Castelfranchi 2010; Aspinwall and Leaf 2002). Snyder wants to distinguish hope from optimism by linking hope to beliefs about self-efficacy (Snyder 2002; Snyder, Rand and Sigmon 2018; Magaletta and Oliver 1999) and reserving the term “optimism” for generalized expectations about positive outcomes. However, the ordinary use of the term is better captured by the idea that hope can be upheld even if one does not assign a high probability to the outcome.

Hope can play three distinct roles in politics (see Stahl 2020): It can be instrumentally valuable insofar as its motivating influence makes it more likely that people achieve politically desirable goals. It can also be constitutive of politics, in that it is necessary for certain hopes to be present for the space of the political to emerge at all. For example, Spinoza argues that citizens can only act together politically if they have civic hope, through which they see each other as sources of potential benefits (Steinberg 2018: 90). Lastly, hope can also play a justificatory role, insofar it is possible that certain policies can only be publicly justified by reference to hopes that those promoting them reasonably entertain.

The potential for hope to both motivate and mislead is widely discussed in ancient and modern philosophy, but systematic accounts of the political relevance of hope stem only from the 20th century (for an overview, see Blöser, Huber and Moellendorf 2020). Many of these contributions can be understood as raising questions about the possible justifications of being guided in one’s political agency by hope, on the one hand, and about the benefits and risks of hope for politics on the other.

Regarding the first question about the justification of hope, one of the earliest and most ambitious accounts can be found in Ernst Bloch’s The Principle of Hope . Bloch advances his argument in the context of a debate in early 20th-century Marxism, distinguishing between what he calls the “cold” and the “warm stream”: The first designates the materialist insight that all historical developments are conditioned and constrained by concrete, existing material conditions, “strict determinations that cannot be skipped over” (Bloch [1954–59] 1986: I:208), whereas the second acknowledges a processual constitution of reality which is captured by hope. Hope, in other words, is justified by its correctly grasping facts about the world. In particular, Bloch describes hope as always related to the “not-yet-conscious” that in turn reflects “objective possibilities”. This idea is related to Bloch’s processual metaphysics, according to which objective tendencies and possibilities interact with “closed” matters of fact, such that the moment of potentiality surpassing into actuality always opens up opportunities for the interventions of active decision-making. The right way to relate to these opportunities is, according to Bloch, “militant optimism”, i.e., not a mere assumption that things will develop in a desirable direction, but an active attitude towards real tendencies with the goal to realize them (Bloch [1954–59] 1986: I:201). Arguing from these premises, Bloch develops an integrated theory in which hope is not merely a subjective combination of desires and beliefs about probabilities or facts, but rather a reflection of metaphysical possibilities in the world and part of a range of human capacities that make it possible to relate to that which is not yet, but which is already prefigured in the objective potentials of reality.

While most contemporary political philosophers acknowledge that many of our political hopes are grounded in reality, few go as far as Bloch to also see a general attitude of hopefulness as justified by metaphysical considerations. In Law of Peoples , Rawls, for example, holds that political theories need to develop a “realistic utopia” of justice to reliably guide our political agency and to “support and strengthen” our political hopes (Rawls 2003: 23). Howard (2019: 300) argues that such a utopia refers to an outcome that is possible and reachable under favorable conditions, but which may be extremely improbable nevertheless. Following Kant, Rawls seems to assume that the main justification for our political hopes for justice seems to come from the fact that we need such hopes to be able to continue to be moved by considerations of justice, and that it would be unreasonable to give up political hope for that reason. Bourke (forthcoming) takes a closer look at the similarities and differences between Kant and Rawls regarding their justifications of belief and hope.

In similar terms, some contemporary authors think of a disposition to have certain hopes as a democratic virtue that can be fostered or undermined by states. Moellendorf (2006) makes an argument to this effect that is restricted to societies transitioning from severe injustice towards justice: Because citizens need hopes to be motivationally capable to engage in the risky activities necessary to pursue societal change, and because hopes for a more just future can support their self-respect under unjust circumstances, institutions of transitional societies must supply the “institutional bases of hope”, such as possibilities for free political campaigning and open debate. Snow (2018: 414) argues that societies that do not offer citizens “secure attachment” create “worrier” citizens that are more likely to succumb to paranoid nationalism, whereas “carers” who are hopeful citizens are more likely to embrace a more inclusive national identity. More narrowly, Snow defines “civic hope” as an “entrenched disposition of openness to the political possibilities a democratic government can provide. Hope must include the belief that the ends of democracy are possible” (2018: 419) and argues—drawing on the pragmatist tradition (see section 2.6 above)—that this disposition is a virtue that contributes to the flourishing of their lives as citizens as well as of the state they live in.

While most contemporary liberal views follow these arguments in replacing Bloch’s metaphysical foundations of hope with moral justifications, defenders of “unjustifiable” political hope, such as Richard Rorty, argue for the more radical claim that we cannot, as a matter of principle, provide any fundamental justification for the desirability of the outcomes that we hope for. As Rorty famously rejects the idea of a political philosophy that is based on privileged knowledge or insight, he argues that “liberal hope” (i.e., hope for the emergence and sustenance of liberal societies) similarly cannot be based on any foundations—such as knowledge about probabilities. Rather, it is an attitude by which those who have it express their commitment to certain forms of future interaction and their belief in their possibility. In Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity , Rorty correspondingly contrasts two forms of liberalism: The “liberal metaphysician” expects social cooperation to be based on scientific or philosophical insight that penetrates individual idiosyncrasy and aims at the adoption of a universal, final vocabulary that then leads to solidarity. By contrast, the “liberal ironist” renounces the idea of a final vocabulary and instead assumes that only the contingent overlap between “selfish hopes” can be a source of the solidarity that grounds the commitment to liberal principles (Rorty 1989: 93). As Smith (2005) notes, Rorty does not intend to argue for unjustified hope (hope for which there is no adequate justification, although such justification is possible). Rather, he must refer to a form of hope for which the question of an ultimate justification does not arise, since it does not incorporate the idea that it is based on any such justification.

While the authors surveyed so far all agree on a positive role of hope in politics, there is also a more skeptical tradition in political thought that either questions whether hope in the standard sense is always available to political agents or argues that, at least sometimes, hope ought to be abandoned for political reasons.

One set of arguments revolves around whether the positive aspects of political hope are accessible to everyone as classic liberal accounts of hope seem to assume. Stockdale (2021) argues that many hopes of members of oppressed groups are not forms of pleasurable anticipation, but “fearful hope”, that is, hope for avoiding the worst effects of their oppression. In this sense, hope is not always something that ought to be preserved. Of course, this does not exclude more positive hopes, such as hoping for a less oppressive future. A more radical challenge to the idea that specific, objectual hopes are always available as a response to injustice is to be found in Lear’s (2006) reflections on “radical hope”. Lear considers a situation—such as that which members of the Crow nation may have faced after they were forced to live on reservations and, as a consequence, their traditional form of life became impossible—where, as a result of historical catastrophe, the vocabulary with which a group makes sense of the good collapses, and the only thing they can hope for is that a new version of a good life will become possible—a version they currently lack the words to conceptualize.

A second, skeptical argument is concerned with the objection that hope in politics might serve to encourage wishful thinking or undermine a realistic, critical evaluation of social reality (see Blöser, Huber and Moellendorf 2020 for an overview): It is often equated with optimism (see Eagleton 2015 for an argument that does not do so) and thus a naive approach to politics. It is said to disempower since hope involves seeing the outcome as dependent on factors beyond one’s control, and to misdirect our agency towards Utopian goals. As Moellendorf (2019: 154) argues, all hope imposes opportunity costs, since it precludes alternative attitudes which may be more instrumentally valuable. Political realists (such as Sleat 2013) argue that hope may be a necessary element of politics, but will by necessity go beyond that which is actually possible and thus mislead our political agency. Although these arguments draw attention to the dangers of hope in politics that have to be taken seriously, a balanced judgment must also take into account the dimensions of value discussed above. Indeed, philosophers working in the field of climate change often emphasize the instrumental value of hope in sustaining action where the attainment of the ultimate goal—managing climate change—is uncertain (McKinnon 2014, Roser 2019). Moellendorf highlights the need to develop hopeful politics when discussing climate issues (Moellendorf 2022).

A third argument finally confronts the fundamental issue of whether hope and hopefulness are always as desirable in politics as much of the preceding arguments have assumed. Warren (2015), for example, argues that the discourse and the valuation of political hope in Black American politics, serves to appropriate a theological notion of hope and uses it to enforce a “compulsory investment” of Black people’s hope in the political—although the resulting politics only prolongs and reinforces the racist structures towards the ending of which their political hope is ostensibly directed. Instead, Warren advocates for “Black nihilism”, that is, the rejection of the metaphysical and political framework in which political hope operates (see Lloyd 2018, Winters 2019 for discussion). But even Warren leaves space for “spiritual hope” as a hope for the end of political hope.

The works of Thomas Aquinas are cited according to the Corpus Thomisticum ( available online ) as follows: SsS for Scriptum super Sententiis , and ST for Summa Theologiae .

Kant’s works are cited according to the Akademie Edition (AE): Königliche Preußische (later Deutsche) Akademie der Wissenschaften (ed.), 1900–, Kants gesammelte Schriften , Berlin: Georg Reimer (later Walter De Gruyter), except for the Critique of Pure Reason . The latter is cited using the standard A- and B-edition pagination. Quoted translations of Kant are included in the list of sources below.

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• Nietzsche, Friedrich, [1883–85] 2006, Thus spoke Zarathustra , Adrian del Caro and Robert B. Pippin (eds.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• –––, [1887] 2006, On the Genealogy of Morality , K. Ansell-Pearson and C. Diethe (eds.), Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.
• –––, [1878 & 1886] 2008, Human, All Too Human and Beyond Good and Evil , H. Zimmern and P.V. Cohn (eds.), Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions.
• O’Neill, Onora, 1996, “Kant on Reason and Religion”, Tanner Lectures on Human Values [ O’Neill 1996 available online ].
• Palmqvist, Carl-Johan, 2021, “Analysing Hope: The Live Possibility Account”, European Journal of Philosophy , 9: 685–698. doi: 10.1111/ejop.12584
• Pettit, Philip, 2004, “Hope and Its Place in Mind”, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , 592 (1): 152–165. doi:10.1177/0002716203261798
• Pinsent, Andrew, 2020, “Hope as a Virtue in the Middle Ages”, in Steven C. van den Heuvel (ed.), Historical and Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Hope , Cham: Springer, pp. 47–60.
• Plato, Statesman. Philebus. Ion , H.N. Fowler and W.R.M. Lamb (transl.), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
• –––, 2008, Timaeus , in Plato: Timaeus and Critias , R. Waterfield (transl.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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• Rawls, John, 2003, The Law of Peoples , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Rioux, Catherine, 2021, “Hope: Conceptual and Normative Issues”, Philosophy Compass , 16 (3): e12724. doi:10.1111/phc3.12724
• Rorty, Richard, 1979, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature , Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• –––, 1982, Consequences of Pragmatism , Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
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• –––, 2002, “Hope and the Future”, Peace Review , 14 (2): 149–155. doi:10.1080/10402650220140166
• Rorty, Richard, Derek Nystrom, and Kent Puckett, 2002, Against Bosses, Against Oligarchies: A Conversation with Richard Rorty , Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.
• Rose, Sage and Nicole Sieben, 2018, “Hope Measurement”, in Matthew W. Gallagher and Shane J. Lopez (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hope , New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 83–92.
• Roser, Dominic, 2019, “Hoping to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: For and Against”, Jahrbuch Praktische Philosophie in globaler Perspektive , 3: 201–25.
• Rossi, Philip, 1982, “Kant’s Doctrine of Hope: Reason’s Interest and the Things of Faith”, New Scholasticism , 56 (2): 228–238. doi:10.5840/newscholas198256231
• Schlette, Heinz Robert, 1995, “Der Sinn der Geschichte von Morgen”. Albert Camus’ Hoffnung , Frankfurt: Joseph Knecht.
• Schopenhauer, Arthur, [1818] 2010, The World as Will and Representation (Volume I), J. Norman, A. Welchman, and C. Janaway (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• –––, [1818] 1958, The World as Will and Representation (Volume II), E.F.J. Payne (transl.), New York: Dover Publications.
• –––, [1840] 1915, The Basis of Morality , A.B. Bullock (transl.), London: George Allen.
• –––, [1851] 1974, Parerga and Paralipomena (Volume 2), E.F.J. Payne (transl.), Oxford: Clarendon.
• Schulz, Ortrun, 2002, Schopenhauers Kritik der Hoffnung , Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
• Segal, Gabriel and Mark Textor, 2015, “Hope as a Primitive Mental State”, Ratio , 28 (2): 207–222. doi:10.1111/rati.12088
• Seneca [Lucius Annaeus Seneca], [c.60CE] 1969, Letters from a Stoic , R. Campbell (transl.), London: Penguin.
• Shade, Patrick, 2001, Habits of Hope. A Pragmatic Theory , Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
• Sheehey, Bonnie, 2019, “To Bear the Past as a Living Wound: William James and the Philosophy of History”, Journal of the Philosophy of History , 13 (3): 325–342.
• Sleat, Matt, 2013, “Hope and disappointment in politics”, Contemporary Politics , 19 (2): 131–145.
• Smith, Nicholas H., 2005, “Rorty on Religion and Hope”, Inquiry , 48 (1): 76–98. doi:10.1080/00201740510015365
• Snow, Nancy E., 2013, “Hope as an Intellectual Virtue”, in Michael W. Austin (ed.), Virtues in Action. New Essays in Applied Virtue Ethics , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 153–170.
• –––, 2018, “Hope as a Democratic Civic Virtue”, Metaphilosophy , 49(3): 407–427.
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• Snyder, C.R., S.C. Sympson, F.C. Ybasco, T.F. Borders, M.A. Babyak, and R.L. Higgins, 1996, “Development and Validation of the State Hope Scale”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 70 (2): 321–335.
• Snyder, C.R., Kevin L. Rand, and David R. Sigmon, 2018, “Hope theory: A member of the positive psychology family”, in Matthew W. Gallagher and Shane J. Lopez (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hope , New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 27–43.
• Snyder, C.R., 2002, “Hope Theory: Rainbows in the Mind”, Psychological Inquiry , 13 (4): 249–275. doi:10.1207/S15327965PLI1304_01
• Speight, C. Allen, 2021, “Kant and Benjamin on Hope, History, and the Task of Interpretation”, in Paul T. Wilford and Samuel A. Stoner (eds.), Kant and the Possibility of Progress , Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 202–216.
• Spinoza, Baruch, c. 1660, “Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being”, in Spinoza 1985: 53–156.
• –––, 1670, “Theological-Political Treatise”, in Spinoza 2002: 383–583.
• –––, 1675, “Political Treatise”, in Spinoza 2002: 676–754.
• –––, 1677, “Ethics”, in Spinoza 1985: 408–617.
• –––, 1985, The Collected Works of Spinoza (volume 1), Edwin Curley (ed. and transl.), Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• –––, 2002, Spinoza. Complete Works , M. Morgan (ed.), S. Shirley (transl.), Indianapolis: Hackett.
• Stahl, Titus, 2020, “Political Hope and Cooperative Community”, in C. Blöser and T. Stahl (eds.), The Moral Psychology of Hope , London: Rowman & Littlefield International, pp. 265–284.
• Steinberg, Justin, 2018, Spinoza’s Political Psychology: The Taming of Fortune and Fear , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Stitzlein, Sarah M., 2020, “Pragmatist Hope”, in C. Blöser and T. Stahl (eds.), The Moral Psychology of Hope. Moral Psychology of the Emotions , London: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 93–]112.
• Stockdale, Katie, 2021, Hope Under Oppression , New York: Oxford University Press.
• Stotland, Ezra, 1969, The Psychology of Hope , San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Thucydides, [c. 410BCE] 2009, The Peloponnesian War , M. Hammond (transl.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
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• Verdenius, William Jacob, 1985, A Commentary on Hesiod, Works and Days , Leiden: Brill.
• Vogt, Katja M., 2017, “Imagining Good Future States: Hope and Truth in Plato’s Philebus”, in Richard Seaford, John Wilkins and Matthew Wright (eds.), Selfhood and the Soul. Essays on Ancient Thought and Literature in Honour of Christopher Gill , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 33–48.
• Walker, Margaret Urban, 2006, Moral Repair: Reconstructing Moral Relations after Wrongdoing , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Warren, Calvin L., 2015, “Black Nihilism and the Politics of Hope”, CR: The New Centennial Review , 15 (1): 215–248.
• Wheatley, J.M.O., 1958, “Wishing and Hoping”, Analysis , 18 (6): 121–131. doi:10.2307/3326568
• White, Patricia, 1991, “Hope, Confidence and Democracy”, Journal of Philosophy of Education , 25 (2): 203–208. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9752.1991.tb00641.x
• Winters, Joseph, 2019, “Afro-Pessimism”, in H. Paul (ed.), Critical Terms in Futures Studies , Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 5–11. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28987-4_2
• Zuckert, Rachel, 2018, “Is Kantian Hope a Feeling?” in K. Sorensen and D. Williamson (eds.), Kant and the Faculty of Feeling , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 242–59. doi:10.1017/9781316823453.014

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Aquinas, Thomas | consciousness: seventeenth-century theories of | faith | Kant, Immanuel: philosophy of religion | Kierkegaard, Søren | Marcel, Gabriel (-Honoré) | Nietzsche, Friedrich | Rorty, Richard | Schopenhauer, Arthur

Acknowledgments

Work on an earlier version of this entry was supported by the Hope and Optimism Project at Notre Dame University.

Copyright © 2022 by Claudia Bloeser < claudiabloeser @ googlemail . com > Titus Stahl < titus . stahl @ rug . nl >

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76 Hope Essay Titles & Examples

The hope essay examples below will come in handy if you’re exploring scriptures, Bible stories, or the concept of faith itself. Besides, our experts have prepared creative topics about hope for you to check.

🏆 Best Topics about Hope & Essay Examples

📌 most interesting hope essay titles, 👍 good hope titles for essays & research papers.

• “Hope of Children” Charity Organization Operations In addition, developing countries experience wars weakening the countries’ economy thus unable to provide for the basic needs of the less privileged in the society.
• The Themes of Hope and Trauma in “Harry Potter” The inciting incident of the series is a giant man breaking down the door and telling Harry about his horrible legacy.
• Dickinson’s “Hope” is the Thing with Feathers” Poem At the beginning of the poem, the first two lines introduce the bird, and the narrator describes it as the creature that continues singing “without the words”.
• “Hope II” by Gustav Klimt: Formal Analysis The painting is called Hope II, which indicates that the artist wanted to emphasize not the doom and sadness of the death of a child but the hope of the women depicted in the painting.
• Children of Men: Hope After Political and Moral Degradation The world presented by Cuaron is incredibly grim and desolate, and he convinces the viewer of total hopelessness through cinematic effects and the narrative of the film itself.
• Social Significance of Emily Dickinson’s “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” This fact undoubtedly also influenced the work of Emily Dickinson, and it is in it that the social significance of the poem “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers” is reflected.
• Hope in the Christian Metanarrative Creation refers to the original period where God created the world and everything that is in it, with Adam and Eve living happily in the garden of Eden.
• Global Poverty Project: A Beacon of Hope in the Fight Against Extreme Poverty The organization works with partners worldwide to increase awareness and understanding of global poverty and inspire people to take action to end it.
• Installation of Hope in Group Therapy It is possible to establish that installation has a prominent force in the group through the NEO-Five-Factor Inventory which can be used to determine the viability of group hope.
• Concepts of Optimism and Hope Hope is a feeling inherent in a person that stimulates him to move on, to believe in the best. I would also like to create a strong family, become a good person and do something […]
• Nurses and Concept of Hope Nursing practitioners should try to encourage their patients and their caregivers to have this kind of attitude in the most desperate situations.
• Rebecca Solnit: Hope Is the Embrace of the Unknown This paper will seek to review the current LGBTQ social justice movement, aimed towards elimination of systemic discrimination, and test if Solnit’s assertion that the grounds for hope lie in the records and recollections of […]
• Making Hope Possible to Bring the Necessary Environmental Changes The persistence of various hazards and potential disasters can be regarded as some of the reasons for the exploration of the peculiarities of current communication patterns on the matter.
• Mankind — Doomed From Birth or Hope in Life To him this is a reflection of the sinful soul of man which indulges in different immoral and wicked thoughts and actions from the time of infancy.
• Cedric in “A Hope in the Unseen” by Ron Suskind In the school in Ballou, we see that good performance is scorned and yet he is struggling to be a good performer.
• Ethical End-of-Life Care: False Sense of Hope Another side of the issue is that patients and their relatives may frequently find it hard to accept that nothing can be done to improve their situation.
• Soaring Hope: Imagining Life as It Ought to Be The main message of the book comprises the values of hope, imagination, and optimism of Christians and the church in the world.
• The Hope Poster by Shepard Fairey I believe the poster I did could have made the fit in anti-drug abuse campaigns of the 1940s with ease, primarily because the artistic style belongs to the same period.
• “Beacon of Hope” Social Center in Savannah The majority of the people who are served by the Beacon of Hope Centre are the elderly, homeless, disabled, needy women and children.
• “Hope” is the Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickinson On the example of the selected poem, the author’s style will be discussed through the lens of her perception of the world. Further, the scheme of the poem will be considered.
• The Center A Place of Hope: Medical Organization The organization is affordable with the help of the treatment program that aims at working with the patients to achieve the best possible plan for treatment within their budget.
• Detroit Poverty and “Focus Hope” Organization There is a great number of factors and issues that lead to a certain part of the population to live in poverty.”Focus Hope” is an organization that tries to alleviate the suffering of those in […]
• Hope in Humanities Future The first area of concern is the consumption of world resources, which appears to be skewed in favor of the developed nations.
• Prototypical Symbols of Hope in Novels Probably the main aspect of how the theme of hope is being explored in James and the Giant Peach is that the author made a deliberate point in referring to hope in one’s life, as […]
• Correlation Study of the Relationship Between Individual Resilience, Hope, Stress and Humour This is advisable to ensure that the attitude, approach, and performance of individuals remain apposite and competitive within the organization. From these findings, it is possible to formulate a hypothesis thus; Hypothesis 1: That there […]
• Marketing and Strategic Plan: Hope Network Hospital Nurses and caregivers in the facility will be expected to embrace the best medical principles in order to support the slogan.
• Project Hope International The organization’s strategy in imparting knowledge among the young people of the community is mainly based on the principle that, the younger a person is introduced to information technology, the higher the chances of using […]
• A non-profit organization Angel of Hope As part of the obligation of the leadership team of Angel of Hope, it is possible to communicate unmistakably with donors and organizations that will present gifts and funds they require.
• Focusing on Faten’s Personal Choices as Presented in Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami Hence, Faten’s first appearance in the book allows the reader to understand the extent to which Faten is committed to her goals and faith: “She wore a gray, pilled sweater and an ankle-length denim skirt, […]
• Charity Organization “Hope for the Nations” Analysis It is also necessary to mention that it is easy to find information on the history of the organization. Though, the most important is information on the projects and the ways to donate.
• Nietzsche’s Zarathustra is a Camusian Absurd Hero, That’s to Say He Has No Hope Consequently, after posing his concern of suicide and life value, he notes that the voluntary death process indicates acknowledgement of the importance of suffering, and the lack of a weighty reason for living.
• Book Marketing Campaign and Competitive Environment It is necessary to analyze the target audience of this book or product, the elements of the marketing mix that have been included in its promotion.
• “This Compost” Gives Hope and Makes People Think In the end of the poem the reader becomes sure that there is nothing to be afraid of the planet will regenerate.
• Hopes and Fears in Regard to the “Network Society” On the other hand, the importance of mass media and communication means has led to prevailing role of computers and other instant messaging devices over personal communication, and the resulting depersonalization of human relations.
• Theology of Hope: Moltmann and Pannenberg Based on the founders of the dogma, theology of hope analyses eschatology from the resurrection of the Messiah onwards rather from the creation of the universe.
• Traditional and Feminist Lens of Marvell and Hope
• Truth He Has No Hope Who Never Had A Fear
• The Hope for the Phoenix That Gave Optimism to the Life of Montag
• Tremendous Hope For Mankind
• The Roots of Debate in Education and the Hope of Dialogue
• The Pleasures Of Hope What Millions Died That Caesar Might Be Great
• What Is Our Hope For The Future
• The Republican Party Offers America its Best Hope for the Future
• Understanding Hope from the Bible’s Perspective
• Theme of Hope in Jane Harrison’s Play, Stolen
• Transitional Resources : Hope, Opportunity And Recovery
• Quasi Experiment Of Outcome Of Hope Program: Drug Abuse
• Understanding Hope and its Implications for Consumer Behavior: I Hope, Therefore I Consume
• The Myth Of Co Parenting By Hope Edelman Analysis
• Portryal of Andy as a Symbol of Hope in Shawshank Redemption
• Stem Cell: A Promise of Hope for the Future
• Treatments That Offer Hope To Hair Loss Sufferers
• Strong Female Characters in Sedgwicks Hope Leslie
• The World ‘s Greatest Hero Represents Ideals Like Hope
• Suffering on Hope: Comparing Prometheus and Io
• Unfortunate Irony “Hope” Ariel Dorfman
• The Concept of Hope in Little Princess, a Book by Conor Grennan
• There Is No Hope of Doing Perfect Research
• The Danger Of Hope By John Steinbeck
• Theologies Rooted in the Concept of Hope
• Hope Is the Most Powerful Force in the Universe
• The Cross Symbol Of Hope
• The Role of Hope, Spirituality and Religious Practice in Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction: Longitudinal Findings
• Some Hope For Americas Troubled Youth
• The Catcher in the Rye Is a Novel Which Evokes Hope and Despair for Holden Caulfield
• The Overall Tone of Hope Through the Word South in Last Poem, a Poem by Bo Juyi
• The Theme of Hope in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• The Difference Hope Makes A Person Can Make Or Break Them
• The Valuation of Hope Value for Real Estate Development
• The Audacity of Hope: A Rhetorical Analysis
• The Techniques Used by Emily Dickinson in Hope is the Thing with Feathers
• The Relationship Between Hope and Adherence to Medication for HIV Patients
• The Untold Hope In The Slumbered Island Of Boracay
• The Concept of Reconciliation in Faith, Hope and Reconciliation, a Speech by Faith Bandler
• The Loss of Hope in Dante’s Inferno
• Thirteen Conversations about One Thing: Revealing Conversations on Change and Hope
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Speeches > Kevin J Worthen > The Process and Power of Hope

The Process and Power of Hope

Kevin j worthen.

President of Brigham Young University

September 8, 2020

Welcome to the new school year—one unlike any other we have experienced. As we start the year, we face some challenges and problems that have never been encountered before on this campus, as evidenced by the unique setting for this devotional. The circumstances in both the world and in our personal lives sometimes seem daunting and difficult, especially in the midst of a pandemic. Each of us may wonder from time to time why we have to deal with such challenges and problems.

Pandora’s Box

Ancient Greek mythology includes a story intended to answer the question of why there are problems and evil in the world. It concerns the desire of Zeus, the king of the gods, to exact revenge on Prometheus for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humans. In Hesiod’s well-known version of the story, Zeus created Pandora 1 and presented her to Prometheus’s brother Epimetheus. Pandora brought with her a jar, which, due to a translation error in the sixteenth century, is now commonly referred to as a box. The jar contained what one ancient poet called “countless plagues.” 2 Prometheus had warned his brother not to accept any gifts from Zeus, but Epimetheus ignored him and accepted Pandora, who immediately opened the jar, scattering its contents throughout the world. Thus, wrote the same poet, the earth and seas are “full of evils.” 3

I am not sure that this is the root cause of the present coronavirus pandemic, but this story—and the use of the term “Pandora’s box” to refer to a multitude of problems and evils—is widely known today. What is less well known is that, according to the earliest written record of the myth, there was one item in Pandora’s jar that did not escape. That item was hope. As one early version of the story put it, “Only Hope remained there . . . under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for . . . the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will . . . of Zeus.” 4

The early poet did not explain why hope remained in the jar, and scholars have vigorously debated that issue for centuries. Some have suggested that Zeus trapped hope in the jar because he was so angry with Prometheus that he wanted to make sure humans had no access to hope and he wanted to eliminate any thought that there was a chance things might improve. 5 Others, including one leading twentieth-century scholar, believed just the opposite: that hope was kept in the jar so that it was always available to humans: “The general sense of the story . . . is that because of Pandora the world is full of ills, but we have one good thing to set against them, Hope.” 6

That same optimistic view of hope finds expression in a variety of cultures and languages. In many English-speaking countries, we say, “Hope springs eternal,” 7 reaffirming eighteenth-century poet Alexander Pope’s belief that the impulse to hope against all odds is embedded deep in our souls.

A traditional Russian saying is “Hope dies last,” which, as one Russian explained, means that as long as you are alive, you have hope: “You live even if everything is very, very bad around you because if you have hope . . . you can survive.” 8

Reflecting the same view from the opposite end of things, the Middle Ages poet Dante introduced his travelers to the gates of hell with the stern warning, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” 9 As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland recently observed, “Truly when hope is gone, what we have left is the flame of the inferno raging on every side.” 10

An Anchor to Our Souls

Modern and ancient scripture, 11 along with modern and ancient prophets, 12 echo the central importance of hope in our lives. Indeed, scripture identifies hope as one of the three essential celestializing characteristics, firmly centered between foundational faith and exalting charity. However, despite its place in that elite company, hope often gets less attention in Church talks than do its surrounding compatriots. At times it seems that we view hope as more of a grammatical connector between the two better-known bookends of faith and charity than we do as an eternal empowering concept whose development is equally central to God’s plan for us.

So today, at a time and in a circumstance in which we might struggle to understand what hope looks like—and even more to know how to draw upon its power in our everyday lives—I would like to spend a few minutes talking about hope, with the hope that my remarks will enhance both our understanding of and our ability to draw strength from this key gospel concept.

Part of the reason why our understanding of the concept of hope seems less developed than other essential gospel characteristics is that the word hope has so many meanings in so many different contexts that its central significance sometimes gets lost. For many in today’s society, hope seems to be just a weak form of positive thinking. When answering such questions as Will I get a 4.0 GPA this semester? Will she accept my invitation for a date? or Will I realize my dream of being the first person on Mars? the common, usually hesitant reply of “Well, I hope so” seems more like a confession that whatever meager optimism we possess is justified and probably outmatched only by our naivete.

However, at other times—and in other settings, especially in the gospel context—hope takes on a much more affirmative and certain role. According to scripture, hope can be “an anchor to [our] souls.” 13 It can make us “sure and steadfast.” 14 The right kind of hope can purify us. 15 Nephi informed us that “a perfect brightness of hope” 16 is an essential part of the process by which we achieve eternal life. Hope is so central to our eternal progress that, according to Moroni, “man must hope, or he cannot receive an inheritance in the place which [Christ] hast prepared.” 17

As Elder Neal A. Maxwell once observed, the hope described in scriptures—what he called “real” or “ultimate” hope—“is much more than wishful musing. It stiffens, not slackens, the spiritual spine. Hope is serene, not giddy, eager without being naive, and pleasantly steady without being smug.” 18

So one step in better understanding hope is to focus on the gospel-centered concept of hope and not the more wishy-washy, weak form of Pollyannaish positive thinking to which the world sometimes limits its meaning.

But even then there is a challenge, because the scriptures themselves appear to convey somewhat inconsistent views of the role of hope in our eternal progress. Some scriptures seem to indicate that we have to have hope before we can have faith, while others—paradoxically—seem to indicate that we have to have faith before we have hope.

For example, on the one hand, the Joseph Smith Translation of the book of Hebrews indicates that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for,” 19 suggesting that faith follows hope, with faith being the celestial affirmation that what one hoped for is in fact true. Mormon seems to suggest the same idea in his sermon in Moroni 7. Mormon asked, “How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?” 20 clearly implying that hope must precede faith.

On the other hand, in that same sermon, Mormon informed us that “without faith there cannot be any hope,” 21 suggesting that hope comes after faith, confirming what appears to be the progress from faith to hope to charity that both Mormon 22 and Paul 23 suggested is the proper order of celestial development.

So does hope come before or after faith? Is it a predecessor or a product of faith? Let me suggest that the answer to all of these questions is yes. Hope comes before and after faith. It is both a ­predecessor and a product of faith.

One possible resolution of this apparent dilemma is to consider the possibility that there are two types or manifestations of hope—one more developed than the other. The Guide to the Scriptures describes hope as both “the confident expectation of and longing for the promised blessings of righteousness.” 24 Let me suggest that “longing for the promised blessings” describes a pre-faith kind of hope, while “confident expectation” describes a post-faith kind of hope, the hope that is created after faith comes into the equation.

Let’s call this pre-faith longing for the blessings “nascent hope”— nascent being defined as something that is “beginning to form [or] grow.” 25 Nascent hope comes into being by our choice, by the exercise of our agency. We must first want to believe—or, to use the words of Alma, “desire to believe.” 26 If we choose to have at least this much hope—enough hope to desire to believe—God can then engender faith in us by giving us an assurance that what we hope for or desire is truly possible. That spiritual assurance of the nascent form of hope is what Paul defined as faith in Hebrews 11: an “assurance of things hoped for.” This faith can then lead to a stronger kind of hope, a more mature hope—the “confident expectation” that the Guide to the Scriptures describes and that Moroni called “a more excellent hope.” 27 The process might work like this:

1. We begin with nascent hope, which comes into being when we exercise our agency to desire or long to believe.

2. Once nascent hope is formed, we can then receive the spiritual assurance or confirmation that what we desire is true, which is the essence of faith. 28

3. That confirmation of faith in turn creates a stronger, “more excellent” form of hope.

Aaron’s instruction to the king of the Lamanites in Alma 22 seems to outline this kind of process: Aaron said to the king, “If thou desirest . . . and call on [Christ’s] name in faith, believing . . . , then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest.” 29 First the king had to exercise his agency by desiring to believe—by choosing to hope that the joy and blessings about which Aaron had testified were really possible. He then needed to pray for spiritual confirmation. The spiritual assurance he received as a result of his prayer, which was faith, then engendered a deeper kind of hope, “a more excellent hope.” 30

This is not a one-time, linear process that we can perfect through a single event but a repeating pattern that builds on itself. It is an iterative process in which faith and hope combine over and over to increase both our faith and our hope. As this process repeats itself, the lines between the two concepts grow faint. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell put it, “Faith and hope are constantly interactive and are not always easily or precisely distinguished.” 31

With this model in mind, it is important to remember that it is not faith in the abstract nor faith in general that turns our less developed nascent hope into the more mature, more durable, and “more excellent” hope. It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the constant exercise of faith in Christ that transforms what would otherwise be merely wishful thinking into the kind of hope that becomes an anchor to our soul. We have to plant our desires, our hope, in Him.

Christ Is the Author and Finisher of Our Hope

Because of His atoning sacrifice, Christ has the power to transform all our righteous desires into reality. Our role is to believe in Him and His gospel and teachings enough that He can work with us and that we allow Him to shape our desires so that our will aligns with His.

Thus, if we want to strengthen our hope, we must focus more on the Savior, especially when we feel hopeless. One of the simplest but most powerful ways we can do that is to follow His example by serving others. When we find ourselves struggling to find hope, we should reach out to someone in need, as the Savior constantly did. As we do so, our focus will shift from ourselves to others, and we will begin to have desires for their well-being. That hope can then be coupled with the assurance that Christ can help them and that He can do so through us. This addition of faith to our righteous desires can transform our small, nascent hope into an enduring, powerful, more excellent form of hope that can change us—and others. Christlike service is often the seedbed of hope, on both sides of faith. Thus, just as Christ is “the author and finisher of our faith,” 32 He is also the author and finisher of our hope.

While we all ultimately want to develop the more excellent hope that comes from exercising faith in Christ, we should not ignore or underestimate the power and importance of the less mature, less developed form of hope that I have called nascent hope. Such budding hope is important both because it is the indispensable first step in the process and because, at times, it is all we can muster.

There will be times, maybe even in the year to come, when the gap between where we are and where we want to be seems so vast as to be unbridgeable. There will be times when our hope is so small that it appears to be of no significance. In those moments—when it feels like all we can do is hang on to the last shred of hope we have—please be assured that that can be enough.

This is illustrated—literally—by a painting by the nineteenth-century English artist George Frederic Watts. The painting is entitled Hope. Prior to Watts’s painting of the subject, most illustrations of hope typically featured a lively young woman holding a flower or an anchor. 33 Watts’s portrayal of hope departed from that norm. Watts himself described the painting as “Hope sitting on a globe, with bandaged eyes playing on a [small harp] which has all the strings broken but one out of which . . . she is trying to get all the music possible, listening with all her might to the little sound.” 34 Her dress is threadbare; she appears to be exhausted, worn out. She is seemingly barely holding on. And yet she is holding on, trying her best to get music from what she has left: one single string.

Watts painted the picture shortly after his young granddaughter had passed away, which may account for this less glorified portrayal of hope. 35 While his exact intended message is somewhat ambiguous—and still somewhat debated today—the positive impact of the picture has been widespread. One of Watts’s biographers wrote:

A poor girl, character-broken and heart-broken, wandering about the streets of London with a growing feeling that nothing [good] remained . . . , saw a photograph of [the picture of Hope ] in a shop-window. She recognized at once its message. When she had saved a few coppers, she bought the photograph, and, looking at it every day, the message sank into her soul, and she fought her way back to a life of purity and honour. 36

In the early years of the twentieth century, prints of the painting circulated widely. President Theodore Roosevelt displayed a copy at his home in New York. 37

Decades later, Martin Luther King Jr. referred to the painting in his “Shattered Dreams” speech, noting that it was an “imaginative portrayal” of the truth that we will all “face the agony of blasted hopes and shattered dreams,” reinforcing his main point that “in the final analysis our ability to deal creatively with shattered dreams and blasted hopes will be determined by the extent of our faith in God.” 38

As Watts’s portrait of hope demonstrates, there is more power in our desires than we may think. In the long run, our desires will determine our destiny. 39 While it may not seem like much, the smallest form of hope—the smallest desire to believe—can be the first step in a miraculous process through which God can exalt us. So if at times you cannot see clearly or really not at all, if you can play only one note and that note sounds out of tune—if all you can do is hang on to one thread and hope it holds, then hang on and hope. That will be enough to start the process. If you then turn to the Savior and sincerely ask for His help, He will take what little you have to offer and turn it into magnificent, exalting hope, which can be an anchor to your soul.

As we begin this new school year, let me conclude by sharing four of my hopes for you in the coming year:

Firs t, I hope that each of you stays safe and healthy. We are in the midst of a pandemic, and that requires that we do some things differently. Most important, we must be willing to adhere to the safety guidelines and directions to which each of us has agreed to comply. If we are to continue on with any face-to-face instruction, every one of us will need to be more vigilant in washing our hands, wearing a mask, social distancing, and avoiding gatherings where those things are not observed.

Second, I hope that each of you discovers or rediscovers the joy of discovery and that you more fully experience the enlightenment and energy that come from learning truth through study and faith. As hard as it may be to believe at times, learning can be an exhilarating, edifying experience, even when—or maybe especially when—it is exhausting. It can be joyful, particularly when it is facilitated by the Holy Ghost.

Thir d, I hope that each of you feels fully a part of the BYU community and that every one of you feels you belong here at BYU. As I mentioned at the recent university conference, I hope that we can each develop “a loving, genuine concern for the welfare of” 40 all of God’s children, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or other distinguishing feature, each of which is secondary to our common identity as “beloved spirit [children] of heavenly parents.” 41 I hope we can learn to have difficult conversations without being difficult, because those kinds of conversations, held in love, will be necessary if we are to be a true Zion community.

Fourt h, and most important, I hope that in the coming year each of you can feel in greater measure God’s love for you individually. At those times when you wonder if there is any reason to hope, when you wonder if anyone cares—or if anyone should care—I invite you to ask God what He thinks of you—what He really thinks of you. I know that can seem to be a frightening endeavor since you know that He knows better than anyone all your faults. But if you are truly sincere, you will be pleasantly surprised by His response, because He loves you much more than you can imagine.

You may feel that you do not have enough hope to generate faith, but I can assure you that the Lord has enough love to let you feel His charity. His love for you is perfect—not because you are perfect, not because you got admitted to BYU, not because you aced a test, and not because your parents are proud of you, but because you are you and you are His. If you feel that love more fully, you will find more hope in every circumstance and in all you do. My greatest hope for you is that you experience that kind of hope through God’s love in this coming year. That you may do so is my prayer and my hope for you, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

© Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.

1. The oldest surviving version of the Pandora story was written by Hesiod, without giving her name, in his poem The Theogony (c. 700 BC). He again told the story in Works and Days (c. 700 BC). In The Theogony, Zeus was assisted by Hephaestus and Athena in creating and preparing Pandora. In the later, more detailed version, other gods were also involved. See Wikipedia, s.v. “ Pandora .”

2. Hesiod, Works and Days, line 100.

3. Hesiod, Works and Days, line 101.

4. Hesiod, Works and Days, lines 96–99.

5. Philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche argued:

Zeus did not want man to throw his life away, no ­matter how much the other evils might torment him, but rather to go on letting himself be tormented anew. To that end, he gives man hope. In truth, it is the most evil of evils because it prolongs man’s torment. [“On the History of Moral Feelings,” section 2 of Human, All Too Human (1878), paragraph 71; see also Wikipedia, s.v. “ Pandora’s box ”]

6. Martin Litchfield West, commentary, in Hesiod, Works and Days, ed. M. L. West (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978), 169. As one Renaissance poem put it:

Of all good things that mortals lack, Hope in the soul alone stays back.

[Gabriele Faerno, “Spes,” fable 94 in Fabulum Centum (1563); see also Wikipedia, s.v. “ Pandora’s box ”]

7. Alexander Pope, “An Essay on Man” (1733–1734), Epistle I, line 95.

8. Anna, in Jarrett Zigon, “ Hope Dies Last: Two Aspects of Hope in Contemporary Moscow ,” Anthropological Theory 9, no. 3 (September 2009): 262. Jarrett Zigon, a contemporary anthropologist, concluded that there is in Russian identity “a definite and unbreakable relationship between ­living a human life and having hope” (Zigon, “ Hope Dies Last ,” 262).

9. Dante Alighieri, “Inferno,” The Divine Comedy (c. 1310–1320), canto 3, line 9.

10. Jeffrey R. Holland, “ A Perfect Brightness of Hope ,” Ensign, May 2020.

11. See, e.g., Ether 12:4 , 32 ; Hebrews 6:19 ; 1 John 3:2–3 ; 2 Nephi 31:20 .

12. See, e.g. Ether 12:32 ; Holland, “ Perfect Brightness ”; Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “ The Infinite Power of Hope ,” Ensign, November 2008; James E. Faust, “ Hope, an Anchor of the Soul ,” Ensign, November 1999; Neal A. Maxwell, “ Hope Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ ,” Ensign, November 1998.

13. Ether 12:4 ; see also Hebrews 6:19 .

14. Ether 12:4 ; Hebrews 6:19 .

15. See 1 John 3:2–3 .

16. 2 Nephi 31:20 .

17. Ether 12:32 ; emphasis added.

18. Maxwell, “ Hope .”

19. JST, Hebrews 11:1 .

20. Moroni 7:40 .

21. Moroni 7:42 .

22. See Moroni describing his father’s sermon “concerning faith, hope, and charity” ( Moroni 7:1 ).

23. See Paul, who said, “Faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” ( 1 Corinthians 13:13 ).

24. Guide to the Scriptures, s.v. “hope,” churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/gs/hope?lang=eng ; emphasis added.

25. OED Online, oed.com, s.v. “nascent.” It is also defined as “in the act of being born or brought forth.”

26. Alma 32:27 .

27. Ether 12:32 .

28. See Alma 32:21 : “If ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true ” (emphasis added).

29. Alma 22:16 ; emphasis added.

30. While not necessarily agreeing with my analysis, Elder Holland may have been describing the same thing when he noted in his most recent general conference talk that through faith the pre-1820 “desires [of the righteous] began to be clothed in reality and became, as the Apostle Paul and others taught, true anchors to the soul, sure and steadfast” (Holland, “ Perfect Brightness ,” paraphrasing Hebrews 6:19 and Ether 12:4 ).

31. Maxwell, “ Hope .”

32. Hebrews 12:2 .

33. See Nicholas Tromans, “Hope”: The Life and Times of a Victorian Icon (Compton, Surrey: Watts Gallery, 2011), 11; see also Wikipedia, s.v. “ Hope (painting) .”

34.  George Frederic Watts, letter to Madeline Wyndham, 8 December 1885, now in the Tate Archives, Tate Britain, London; quoted in Mark Bills and Barbara Bryant, G. F. Watts: Victorian Visionary: Highlights from the Watts Gallery Collection (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press in association with Watts Gallery, 2008), 220; also quoted in Tromans, Victorian Icon, 70; see also Wikipedia, s.v. “ Hope (painting) .”

35. See Bills and Bryant, G. F. Watts, 220; see also Wikipedia, s.v. “ Hope (painting) .”

36. Henry William Shrewsbury, The Visions of an Artist: Studies in G. F. Watts, with Verse Interpretations (London: Charles H. Kelly, 1918), 64.

37. See Wikipedia, s.v. “ Hope (painting) .”

38. Martin Luther King Jr., “Draft of Chapter X, ‘Shattered Dreams,’” 1 July 1962 to 31 March 1963 (based on a sermon preached in Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, 5 April 1959), Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford University, kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/draft-chapter-x-shattered-dreams .

39. See Alma 29:2 : “God . . . granteth unto men according to their desire”; Enos 1:12 : “The Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith”; and D&C 11:17 : “According to your desires . . . , even according to your faith shall it be done unto you.”

40. The Mission of Brigham Young University (4 November 1981). See Kevin J Worthen, “ How to Act While Being Acted Upon ,” BYU university conference address, 24 August 2020.

41. “ The Family: A Proclamation to the World ” (23 September 1995). See Worthen, “ How to Act .”

See the complete list of abbreviations here

Kevin J Worthen, president of Brigham Young University, delivered this devotional address on September 8, 2020.

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As we begin to glimpse what might be the beginning of the end of the pandemic, what does hope mean? It’s hard not to sense the presence of hope, but how do we think of it?

Hope is fragile but tough, fugitive but tenacious, even adhesive. It sticks: Hope “ stayed behind/in her impregnable home beneath the lip/of the jar ,” wrote the ancient Greek poet Hesiod in his poem “Works and Days.” While the evils released from the jar by Pandora fly out into the world, hope remains.

Written in the 19th century, poet Emily Dickinson’s version of hope is “the thing with feathers” that “perches in the soul” and perseveres; it sings “and never stops at all.” Dickinson invites us to imagine Hope frail as a bird, fluttering. It doesn’t fly away – but that verb “perches,” suggesting that it always might.

That Dickinson’s hope “sings the tune without the words” might suggest that hope provides a general, even generic response rather than a specific remedy tailored to the occasion. Nevertheless, even in the sorest storms, hope is available.

Which isn’t to say that hope is always consoling. When we turn to hope, have recourse to hope or even hope against hope, it isn’t at moments of triumph or complacency. Rather, we need hope at moments when things feel precarious.

Once we recognize this simple principle, the intuitive truth that hope is a companion of anxiety turns up everywhere.

‘Intrinsically intertwined’

In 2018, the Rubin Museum in New York City mounted a participatory art installation entitled “ A Monument for the Anxious and Hopeful .” Artist Candy Chang and writer James A. Reeves asked “ visitors to anonymously write their anxieties and hopes on vellum cards and display them on a 30’ x 15’ wall for others to see .”

Tracy A. Dennis-Tiwary , a psychology and neuroscience scholar, notes that over 50,000 cards were submitted . The cards, writes Dennis-Tiwary, “reflected … immense optimism and fear. … It was not obvious unless you looked closely, but the juxtaposition of the two card types revealed a pattern: the anxieties and hopes were often the same. … The monument showed how anxiety and hope go hand in hand.”

Chang and Reeves write that “Anxiety and hope are defined by a moment that has yet to arrive.” Put another way, writes Dennis-Tiwary, “when we imagine and prepare for the uncertain future, anxiety and hope are intrinsically intertwined, forever transforming from one to another.”

Leaving despair behind

The Athenian dramatist Euripides was a peerless psychologist with a particular interest in the stresses of decision-making. His play, “ Iphigenia among the Taurians ,” is less a tragedy than a melodrama or romance, with a happy ending against the odds.

In the following passage, the resourceful Iphigenia – a priestess whose job it is to sacrifice foreigners who land on the shores of her captor’s island – is devising a complicated strategy to free at least one of her prisoners and thereby send a message to her family back home. She’s unaware, at this point in the drama, that one of the captives whom she’s supposed to sacrifice is her own brother Orestes. She has thought of a clever scheme, but the hope engendered by it, the very possibility of its success, also makes her anxious. Here’s my translation:

“People in trouble do not have a prayer of calm once they have left behind despair and turned toward hope.”

As with the plot of any exciting movie, we’re rooting for the good guys, and our hope is balanced by uneasiness. Suspense!

Iphigenia’s next words to Orestes are also acute:

“So this is what I fear: that you, once you have sailed away from here, will forget about me, will ignore my heart’s desire.”

Will the lucky winners, the survivors, forget about those who, having perhaps enabled them to escape, have been left behind?

This is Iphigenia’s entirely reasonable worry. Even the hoped-for and possible success of her scheme may have a downside. As Chang, Reeves and Dennis-Tiwary all point out, hope and anxiety are so closely intertwined that they may turn out to be different sides of the same coin.

‘Green shoots of hope’

Only two months after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and less than two months after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, hope is palpable; so is anxiety.

A year into the pandemic, spring is about to arrive. A recent New Yorker article notes that “ here in the city there are green shoots … who can’t imagine that happier days may soon be here again ?” The word hope isn’t mentioned, but a hopeful aura pervades the passage.

Yet nothing is certain. Trump and Trumpism glower in the wings and also in the political arena. New viral variants abound. There may be a light at the end of the tunnel, no doubt – but how long will that tunnel be? Hope requires patience.

In a famous passage in Plato’s “Republic ,” Socrates evokes the limitations of human vision by using the allegory of an underground cave whose inhabitants have never seen the daylight. The passage never mentions hope, but it does mention the reluctance of the prisoners, whose lives have been spent underground, to be dragged into the light, which dazzles their eyes.

Hope doesn’t go away, but it morphs and mutates. Have we become habituated to despair?

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Essay on Hope

Students are often asked to write an essay on Hope in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Hope

Introduction.

Hope is a powerful feeling that pushes us to strive for better. It’s the spark that lights up dark times, a beacon guiding us through life’s storms.

The Essence of Hope

Hope is believing in the possibility of a brighter future. It’s the trust that things will improve, no matter how bleak they seem.

Hope in Everyday Life

We see hope in small things: a seed sprouting, a sick friend recovering, or a new day dawning. These give us strength.

Hope is essential. It’s the force that keeps us moving forward, even when the road is tough.

Also check:

• Paragraph on Hope

250 Words Essay on Hope

Introduction to hope.

Hope, a seemingly simple four-letter word, carries profound implications for our lives. It is a psychological construct that serves as a beacon, illuminating the path amidst the darkest moments, and a driving force that propels us forward in the face of adversity.

Hope: A Psychological Perspective

From a psychological standpoint, hope is not merely a passive state of desire; it’s an active state of mind, a dynamic process involving goal setting, planning, and motivation. It is a cognitive function that allows us to envision a better future, fostering resilience and facilitating recovery from setbacks.

The Power of Hope

The power of hope extends beyond the individual. It can influence interpersonal relationships, community dynamics, and societal changes. When hope is shared, it can spark collective action, leading to transformational changes in communities and societies. It can bridge gaps, heal divisions, and inspire movements.

Hope and Well-being

Hope has a profound impact on our well-being. Numerous studies have shown a direct correlation between levels of hope and mental health. High levels of hope can mitigate the effects of stress and anxiety, promote optimism, and enhance life satisfaction.

Conclusion: The Necessity of Hope

Hope, therefore, is not just a luxury, but a necessity. It is the fuel that keeps the engine of life running, the thread that weaves the fabric of our existence. As we navigate through life’s complexities, hope remains our guiding light, a testament to our innate capacity for resilience and growth.

500 Words Essay on Hope

Hope is a powerful and transformative human emotion, a beacon of light that pierces the darkness of despair and uncertainty. It is often described as the expectation of a positive outcome or the belief in a better future, irrespective of the current circumstances. It is this feeling of anticipation and trust that fuels our resilience and propels us forward, even in the face of adversity.

The Psychology of Hope

From a psychological perspective, hope is not merely a passive waiting but an active engagement with the future. It involves setting goals, having the tenacity to pursue them, and believing in one’s ability to achieve them. This is echoed in the words of psychologist Charles R. Snyder, who proposed the Hope Theory, arguing that hope consists of ‘agency’ (the motivation to achieve goals) and ‘pathways’ (the ability to generate ways to reach those goals).

Hope as a Catalyst for Change

Hope is not just an emotion; it is a catalyst for change. It is the spark that ignites action and the fuel that keeps it going. When we hope, we are not only envisioning a better future but also setting the wheels in motion to bring it about. Hope inspires creativity, innovation, and perseverance, turning dreams into reality.

Hope in the Face of Adversity

In the face of adversity, hope serves as a protective shield, buffering us against despair and disillusionment. It provides us with the strength to endure, to keep going when the odds are against us. It is hope that gives us the courage to confront our fears, to face our challenges, and to overcome our obstacles.

The Power of Collective Hope

Hope is not just an individual experience; it is also a collective phenomenon. Collective hope, or the shared anticipation of a better future, can be a powerful force for social change. It can motivate communities to come together, to work towards common goals, and to effect meaningful change. The civil rights movement, the fight against climate change, and the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic are all testament to the power of collective hope.

In conclusion, hope is a powerful and transformative emotion that fuels resilience, inspires action, and drives change. It is the belief in a better future, the strength to endure adversity, and the collective anticipation of positive change. As philosopher Ernst Bloch once said, “The work of this emotion requires people who throw themselves actively into what is becoming, to which they themselves belong.” It is hope that propels us forward, that keeps us striving, that makes us human.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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Why Hope Matters

Hoping we can make things better is the secret to doing so..

Posted February 5, 2019 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

My first November as a professional writer wasn’t an easy one. My only client failed to pay his bill, I was receiving more rejections than assignments, my arthritis was flaring and my cat got $1,200-worth-of-vet-bills sick. I didn’t know how I was going to make my house payment and my stomach was upset. I stopped sleeping . But, I never stopped hoping. I believed that I could make this writing business work, and I set to work making that happen.

Hope Comes With the Possibility of Something Better

Hope implies that there is the possibility of a better future, according to the famed hope researcher C.R. Snyder. It shows up at the worst possible time when things are dire and difficult, but can keep us going during those hard moments. If during the difficulty, we can see the faint glimmer of something better, then hope “opens us up,” says Barbara Fredrickson, a positive psychology researcher. And turn us toward something better.

Hope is not a passive exercise in wishing, but an active approach to life, arising when there is something we want when we've got a clear goal in mind. And though it may be tough going, we’ll develop a plan to get us closer to where we want to go.

My goal was to be a full-time writer. My plan included sending out dozens of queries each week, writing every day, working with a mentor, taking classes. I taught to make ends meet. Did some public relations work, wrote at night. And, I was willing to take an early-morning job delivering papers if I needed. Anything to leave time to write.

Through each of these actions, I made a little progress. Experienced a little success. Made a little money, sold a short article, became a better writer. Those things kept me hoping, and that hope motivated me to keep working toward the ultimate goal.

Hope is motivating for me, even now, 23 years later. It’s not a delusional wishing things away, but a clarity of vision. Once you have your goal in mind, then you can get busy doing the things you need to get there. It helps me feel more empowered and less stressed .

And right now, that matters more than ever. Looking at the challenges we face, the hostility and adversity that seems to be seeping into the corners of our culture, the hope that we can make a positive difference in our families and communities can help us do it. Can help us move from the negative into something a little better.

Hope Helps Us Keep Going

Research indicates that hope can help us manage stress and anxiety and cope with adversity. It contributes to our well-being and happiness and motivates positive action. Hopeful people believe they can influence their goals, that their efforts can have a positive impact. They are also more likely to make healthy choices to eat better or exercise, or do the other things that will help them move toward what they are hoping for.

Then, other positive emotions such as courage and confidence ( self-efficacy ) and happiness emerge. They become our coping strategy, the emotions crucial in helping us survive. They allow us to take a wider view, become more creative in our approach and problem solving, and retain our optimism .

Hope isn’t delusional. It isn’t denial . It doesn't ignore the real challenges, details of the diagnosis, or dwindling money in the checking account. It is not woo-woo thinking.

It doesn’t ignore the trouble, or make excuses, or deny danger. It is not pretending. It is acknowledging the truth of the situation and working to find the best way to cope. It’s showing up and working through the hard stuff, believing that something better is possible. It’s resilient .

We can prime ourselves to hope, to move closer to optimism and action. Here’s how:

Seek inspiration and awe . Research by psychologist Dacher Keltner, PhD., shows that when we are so moved by something that we can hardly find the words to talk about it we are experiencing awe and that creates meaning, and positive feeling which contributes to a sense of hopefulness that can keep us moving forward. Awe reminds us of something bigger and vast. Causes us to slow down, think about what's important to us, and connect in a deeper way. I feel it every time I look at the ocean, and there is nothing more hopeful to me than watching the waves, roll in an out no matter what's going on around them.

Re-identify your goals. Maintaining a clear vision about what’s important and what we want to contribute and achieve also contributes to hope. When you are reminded of your big goals, the things that drive you to get up in the morning, you reconnect with your deeper values. Then, you’re more likely to persist because the process—the lifestyle that comes from living close to your values—helps you prevail despite obstacles.

Appreciate the setbacks and move through them. Hope is strengthened exponentially when you hit a setback and you persist despite it. Next time you run up against one, pay attention to what it offers you—a growth opportunity, a chance to learn something you need to know to accomplish your goals—then move through that challenge.

We all know tough times are going to come. Maybe you are in one now. Hope reminds us that we can continue and despite challenges, and pursue greater possibilities.

That’s a powerful feeling. One that keeps us moving instead of staying stuck in the despair.

It worked for me early on in my career —I did make the house payment, I’m still self-employed, still writing. Still hoping.

Polly Campbell is the host of the Polly Campbell, Simply Said podcast and the author of three books, including How to Live an Awesome Life and Imperfect Spirituality .

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Philosophy, One Thousand Words at a Time

Authors: Michael Milona and Katie Stockdale Categories: Ethics , Epistemology ,  Philosophy of Religion , Social & Political Philosophy Word Count: 994

Hope is ubiquitous: family members express hope that we find love and happiness, politicians call for hope in response to tragedies, and optimists urge people to keep their hopes up. We also tell ourselves to maintain hope, to find it, or in darker moments, to give it up. We hope for frivolous things, too.

But what is hope? Can hope be rational or irrational? Is hope valuable? Is it ever dangerous?

This essay reviews recent important answers to these questions with the goal of better understanding hope. [1]

Karl Robert Bodek and Kurt Conrad Löw, One Spring, Gurs Camp, 1941

1. what is hope.

The typical starting point for analyzing hope is that it involves a desire for an outcome and a belief that the outcome’s occurring is at least possible . The sense of possibility isn’t merely physical possibility, for we can hope that, say, God perform some miracle that violates the law of gravity. Philosophers tend to think that a person can hope for anything they believe is possible (no matter how low the odds), though it is a separate question whether a hope is rational or not, and to what degree. [2]

But the belief-desire account of hope appears insufficient: we might desire an outcome, and believe that the outcome is possible, yet have absolutely no hope that it will happen! [3] A prisoner facing execution may desire a pardon, believe that a pardon is possible , yet be altogether hopeless that he will be pardoned. [4]

Hope, then, requires more than a desire for something and belief in its possibility. What else?

Luc Bovens argues that hope also requires positive conscious thoughts or “mental imaging” about the desired outcome: basically, fantasizing about the desired outcome occurring. [5] The prisoner facing execution thus hopes for a pardon only if he has pleasant thoughts or imaginations about being pardoned. If hope involves, beyond belief and desire, pleasant thoughts about the outcome occurring, we might be able to distinguish being hopeful for something from being hopeless about it: hope involves pleasant thoughts whereas hopelessness involves unpleasant ones.

Adrienne M. Martin questions whether Bovens’s view adequately distinguishes hope from hopelessness. She argues that a prisoner who is hopeless about the possibility of an overturned conviction may still desire the outcome, believe it possible, and fantasize about being pardoned. [6] To distinguish hope from hopelessness, Martin defends an “incorporation analysis” of hope: [7] the inmate incorporates his desire into his plans, believing that he has reasons to plan and act (e.g., with his lawyer) about the prospects of freedom.

But does hope really require that hopeful people believe that they have reasons to feel, act, and plan in accordance with their desire, as Martin’s view requires? Michael Milona and Katie Stockdale argue that it does not. [8] We sometimes wholly reject our hopes (e.g., to return to a previous bad romantic relationship), believing that that we have no reason for what we hope for. Rejecting a hope, or believing that we should not have that hope, does not mean that this hope is any less of a hope , contrary to what the incorporation analysis suggests: hopes we wish we didn’t have are hopes nevertheless.

Milona and Stockdale develop the idea that hope is akin not to a judgment, but rather, to a perceptual experience . Just as perceivers often judge their perceptions to be misguided (e.g., at magic shows), so too may hopers judge their hopes are misguided. Hope then involves, beyond belief and desire, a perceptual-like experience of reasons to pursue the desired outcome, or to prepare themselves for its possible occurrence. So, in hoping we may experience reasons to, say, return to an ex partner without believing such reasons exist.

In sum, there continue to be significant debates about the nature of hope, most notably what needs to be added to hope (if anything) beyond mere belief and desire.

2. The Rationality and Value of Hope

Hope is generally thought to be epistemically rational if one’s belief about the possibility (or in some cases, the specific likelihood) of the outcome is correct in light of the available evidence. [9]

Hope may be practically rational in a variety of ways as well. Hope is thought to contribute to well-being, motivate the achievement of goals, and inspire courageous action, among other things. [10]

Beyond epistemic and practical rationality, some hopes may even be rational because they are constitutive of who we are (e.g., a member of a certain religion), and to lose such fundamental hopes would be to lose part of our identity. [11]

3. The Dangers of Hope

Hope is not without risks.

Thwarted hopes can result in strong feelings of disappointment. Hope may also be a source of wishful thinking, leading people to see the world as tilting in their favor despite the evidence. [12] For example, hope that the problems of climate change will be effectively addressed might lead someone not to bother with climate change activism or to take any personal responsibility to work to mitigate it.

Hope can also be exploited, such as when politicians take advantage of the hopes of people in positions of powerlessness. For example, people who desperately hope for greater economic security may be influenced to accept policies that primarily serve the politician’s own ends rather than the people’s.

These and other dangers of hope might lead us to explore alternative emotions to hope. Stockdale argues that in the face of persistent injustices, bitterness (i.e., anger without hope) might be a justified emotional response. [13] The relevance of hope to politics and society has also inspired investigation of whether hope is a democratic or political virtue [14] and whether a form of radical hope is needed in the face of cultural devastation and other severe hardships. [15]

4. Conclusion

In a world where our needs and desires are so often met with uncertainty, hope tends to emerge. Philosophy has much to contribute to understanding this phenomenon, and the potential value and risks of hope to all aspects of our lives: personally, socially, morally, intellectually, religiously, politically and more.

[1] Only recently have philosophers given the topic sustained attention.  Some discussions of hope are found in the philosophy of religion (see Augustine, c. 420 [1999]), in existentialist writings (see Marcel, 2010), and in bioethics (see, e.g., Simpson (2004); Murdoch and Scott (2010); McMillan, Walker, and Hope (2014)).

[2] See Chignell (2014) for a discussion of Immanuel Kant’s defense of the rationality of hoping for miracles, divine grace, and a truly ethical society.

[3] Despair has long been considered to be the attitude which is the opposite of hope. This view traces back to St. Thomas Aquinas who argues that despair is the contrary to hope insofar as it implies “withdrawal” from the desired object while hope implies “approach” ( Summa Theologiae II-II.40.4).

[4] The claim that the standard account fails to distinguish hope from hopelessness (or in his terms, despair) is due to Ariel Meirav (2009).

[5] Bovens (1999).

[6] Martin (2013, 18-19).

[7] Moellendorf (2006) defends a similar theory.

[8] Milona and Stockdale (2018).

[9] Martin (2013, 37).

[10] See Bovens (1999) and Kadlac (2015).

[11] Blöser and Stahl (2017).

[12] Bovens (1999).

[13] Stockdale (2017).

[14] See Moellendorf (2006) and Mittleman (2009).

[15] Lear (2006).

Aquinas, Thomas. [1485] 1948. Summa Theologiae . Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. 5 vols. Benziger Brothers.

Augustine. [c. 420] 1999. The Augustine Catechism: The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Charity . Trans. Bruce Harbert. Ed. Boniface Ramsey. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press.

Blöser, Claudia, and Titus Stahl. 2017. “Fundamental Hope and Practical Identity.” Philosophical Papers 46 (3): 345–71.

Bovens, Luc. 1999. “The Value of Hope.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59 (3): 667–81.

Chignell, Andrew. (2014). “Rational Hope, Possibility, and Divine Action.” in Gordon E.

Michalson (ed.), Kant’s Religion within the Bounds of Mere Reason: A Critical Guide . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 98-117.

Kadlac, Adam. 2015. “The Virtue of Hope.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 18 (2): 337–54.

Lear, Jonathan. 2006. Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation . Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Marcel, Gabriel. 2010. Homo Viator: Introduction to the Metaphysic of Hope . Updated ed. South Bend, Ind: St. Augustine’s Press.

Martin, Adrienne. 2013. How We Hope: A Moral Psychology . Princeton: Princeton University Press.

McMillan, John, Simon Walker, and Tony Hope. 2014. “Valuing Hope.” Monash Bioethics Review 32 (1–2): 33–42.

Meirav, Ariel. 2009. “The Nature of Hope.” Ratio 22 (2): 216–33.

Milona, Michael. 2018. “Finding Hope.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy , February, 1–20.

Milona, Michael, and Katie Stockdale. 2018. “A Perceptual Theory of Hope.” Ergo, an Open Access Journal of Philosophy 5.

Mittleman, Alan. 2009. Hope in a Democratic Age: Philosophy, Religion, and Political Theory . New York: Oxford University Press.

Moellendorf, Darrel. 2006. “Hope as a Political Virtue.” Philosophical Papers 35 (3): 413–33.

Murdoch, Charles E., and Christopher Thomas Scott. 2010. “Stem Cell Tourism and the Power of Hope.” The American Journal of Bioethics 10 (5): 16–23.

Simpson, Christy. 2004. “When Hope Makes Us Vulnerable: A Discussion of Patient-Healthcare Provider Interactions in the Context of Hope.” Bioethics 18 (5): 428–47.

Stockdale, Katie. 2017. “Losing Hope: Injustice and Moral Bitterness.” Hypatia 32 (2): 363–79.

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About the Authors

Milona Michael is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Ryerson University. His principal research interests are at the intersection of ethics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind. michaelmilona.com

Katie Stockdale is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Victoria. Her research is primarily in ethics (especially moral psychology) and feminist philosophy. kstockdale.com

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Characterizing Hope: An Interdisciplinary Overview of the Characteristics of Hope

• Open access
• Published: 09 September 2021
• Volume 17 , pages 1681–1723, ( 2022 )

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• Emma Pleeging   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4941-2033 1 ,
• Job van Exel   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4178-1777 2 &
• Martijn Burger 3  

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What we hope for has a large impact on how we feel and behave. Research on the determinants and effects of a hopeful disposition is increasing in several academic fields, such as psychology, nursing and organizational studies. However, how hope is defined differs significantly between disciplines, leading to fragmentation in the insights that we can draw from this research. This systematic review aims to provide an extensive overview of the ascribed characteristics of the concept of hope in ten different academic fields. Using phenomenographic research methods, these characterizations are collected and categorized to offer a comprehensive conceptual framework of hope. The resulting framework comprises 7 themes and 41 sub-themes. We show how this framework can be used to obtain a fuller understanding of the concept of hope and of possible blind spots within specific research fields.

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Introduction

Subjective experiences are increasingly recognized within academia and policy as important drivers of individual behaviour and societal change. This has resulted in a burgeoning literature on subjective experiences, such as emotions, in the social sciences and humanities, as insights into the affective dimension of human life can clarify many hitherto unexplained, ‘irrational’ behaviours (Bruni & Sugden, 2007 ; Kahneman, 2013 ; Webb, 2007; Schwartz, 2010 ; De Waal, 2019 ). Hope is one such experience that has appeared to be a very relevant incentive for human behaviour, and the concept has received increased attention over the past decades from varying disciplines, such as positive psychology, nursing, environmental studies, anthropology and organizational studies (Kleist & Jansen, 2016; Luthans & Jensen, 2002 ; Snyder, 2000a ; Webb, 2007). Hope can entice people to invest in their future, for example through a business, an education, in living healthily, accepting treatment for a disease, or in collaborating with others in solving societal problems (Snyder, 2000a ; Duflo, 2012 ; Elliot, 2007; Lybbert & Wydick, 2015 ; Ojala, 2012). Such a hopeful motivation for behaviour requires belief in and the imagination of a certain good or desire. Additionally, it is based on a belief in someone’s capabilities to achieve this goal or trust in the abilities of others to do so, such as societal institutes, government, science or a God or deity. As a form of imagination, hope can allow people to transcend their current situation and, as such, battle apathy and provide a ‘renewed zest for life’ in times of hardship, such as during sickness, poverty or societal injustice (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Ludema et al., 1997; Schwartz & Post, 2002).

Despite an increased recognition of the importance of hope in understanding behaviour, there seems to be no sufficiently comprehensive overlapping definition or framework of the concept that is applicable across disciplines (Webb, 2007). Some succinct definitions seem to be valid across approaches, such as what is called the ‘orthodox definition’ of hope, i.e., a desire for a possible but uncertain goal. This definition thus entails two necessary and sufficient components of hope: desire and uncertainty (Day, 1969; Martin, 2011 ). Few, if any, scholars concerned with hope would have issue with the claim that hope at least involves a desire for something and some form of uncertainty. However, such a description is so brief that it does not capture the much more detailed and elaborate descriptions used within different disciplines and consequently offers little help in linking research across disciplines. Therefore, research on hope within, for example, anthropology, has little or no connection to research on hope within psychology, apart from the very abstract definitional ‘core’ represented by the orthodox definition, which has little descriptive power. As such, research on hope is largely performed within the confines of different disciplines or ‘clusters of meaning’.

Consequently, definitions and characterizations of hope can differ widely, from ‘an affirmative form of social discourse’ (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997), to ‘the anticipation of achieving a personally significant future good’ (Leung et al., 2009), ‘an emotion network’ (Scioli et al., 2011), a cognitive process involving agency and pathways to goals (Snyder, 2000a ), ‘an emotion that occurs when an individual is focused on an important positive future outcome’ (Bruiniks & Malle, 2005), positive psychological capital (Luthans & Jensen, 2002 ), or ‘an inner power directed toward a new awareness and enrichment of “being”’ (Herth, 1993). Although often divergent and sometimes even contradictory, it is likely that most of these definitions of hope have some truth to them. Different dimensions of hope can be elicited in different situations, and since scientific disciplines each have their own scope and focus, all come up with different interpretations of the concept. As Webb (2007: 80) states, different contexts can elucidate different ‘modes of hoping’:

We may each of us at different times and in different circumstances experience hope in the manner described by Marcel or Dauenhauer or Bloch or Snyder or Rorty. Our hopes may be active or passive, patient or critical, private or collective, grounded in the evidence or resolute in spite of it, socially conservative or socially transformative. We all hope, but we experience this most human of all mental feelings in a variety of modes.

Almost all approaches to defining hope regard it as a multifaceted concept but focus mainly or solely on one or a few ‘modes of hoping’. Since interdisciplinary meta-analyses of the concept are scarce, we rarely see how these different modes are connected. This hinders research on the role of hope in context since we know little about the interplay between different characteristics of a hopeful feeling. This paper aims to contribute to the research field by providing an overview of the central characteristics of hope from an interdisciplinary perspective. Building on Webb’s (2007) description of hope as ‘a human universal that can be experienced in different modes’, we aim to disentangle the building blocks that make up these different modes of hoping. This will not only help to understand the meaning and role of hope in real-life contexts but also to put mono-disciplinary approaches in a broader context. Knowledge of different perspectives on the characteristics of hope can result in better and more useful research in the future, as it helps researchers to not simplify unnecessarily or overlook important characteristics in the context of their research. This means that these insights could also help to develop more relevant correlational and causational models between hope and other states or circumstances. For example, understanding the social characteristics of hope could inform researchers focused on a more individualistic perspective, common in fields such as psychology or economics, of the importance to consider the relation between social capital or societal hierarchy and hope, a topic which might otherwise be overlooked. Moreover, a more inclusive understanding of the characteristics of hope could inform the development of more comprehensive and valid psychometric instruments, or motivate researchers to use multiple instruments to cover a wider array of characteristics of hope. Also, a broader understanding of hope could help practitioners to better understand the role hope plays in their work field, meaning that they can make more informed choices about, for example, how to improve the conditions or quality of life of the people they work with.

Using a systematic phenomenographic review of articles on hope within several disciplines, such as economics, environmental studies, health science, history, humanities and social sciences, we aim to offer a comprehensive interdisciplinary framework that can be easily used to disentangle what components a specific approach or definition is focusing on.

The paper is structured as follows. The second section gives a short overview of the current state of affairs, asking which characteristics are regarded as being central to hope in current influential theories, how our understanding of hope has changed over time and what topics are under debate. The third section discusses the methodology of the phenomenographic analysis of this study. The results are discussed in section four, where we will show how two general approaches to defining hope can be used to structure an interdisciplinary ‘classification matrix’ of the characteristics of hope. Moreover, we discuss seven domains and several subthemes related to the characteristics of hope. Section five starts with a recap of the complete classification-matrix and uses it to elucidate some of the differences between disciplines in studying hope. Section six offers a discussion of the results and some limitations.

Hope is certainly not a new topic of research. It has been studied within several disciplines throughout history. However, until the twentieth century, hope was usually merely considered as a ‘secondary’ part of a larger philosophical or academic project. Only after this period did structured and empirical investigations specifically focused on hope itself became more prevalent (Bloeser & Stahl, 2017 ; Webb, 2007).

Hope Throughout History

Over time, hope has had many different connotations and has been portrayed as both good and evil. Early Greek accounts of hope focus mostly on the latter by equating hope to wishful thinking based largely on ignorance that keeps people from courageously facing reality (Bloeser & Stahl, 2017 ; Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997). Although several Greek thinkers such as Aristotle and Plato also recognize the motivating power of hope and the possibility of courageous hope, by and large, hope was seen as irrational, generally naïve, easily used for the wrong goals, and sometimes overly eager, while at other times, it was seen as a cause for apathy (Gravlee, 2020 ). In contrast, Judeo-Christian interpretations of hope actually ascribe a virtuous character to hope since it can motivate behaviour in the absence of direct, rational evidence, instead relying on faith in the possibility of good. Footnote 1 During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, thinkers of the Enlightenment mostly defined hope as a neutral passion, which can motivate both rational and irrational behaviour. Although also comprising cognitive beliefs about reality and the probability of attaining one’s goals, descriptions of hope focused on its emotional characteristics. In addition, hope was increasingly seen as a political power by thinkers such as Hobbes and Spinoza, since it can motivate people towards societal progress and solidarity through, for example, laws and the social contract (Boukala & Dimitrakopoulou, 2017; Bloeser & Stahl, 2017 ). In philosophical discussions since Enlightenment, hope is again portrayed as both good and evil. Immanuel Kant describes reasonable hope as a rational imperative, seeing it as a bridge between reason and existential questions that cannot be answered by experience (Insole, 2016; Bloeser & Stahl, 2017 ). Authors such as Kierkengaard and Marcel similarly discuss hope as transcending the limitations of (empirical) understanding and as an inherently human trait pulling people towards progress. Thinkers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, on the other hand, condemn hope as a misguided understanding of reality that mostly distracts people from addressing injustice. Nietzsche went so far as to label hope ‘the greatest of all evils for it lengthens the ordeal of man’ ( 1996 : 32). With the rise of psychoanalysis at the beginning of the twentieth century, attention again swayed to the more positive side of hope as an expression of fundamental trust in others and a basic force of human psychology (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997). Similarly, pragmatic philosophers such as Dewey and Rorty regard hope and trust in the goodness of others as a rational choice even in the absence of proof, since it offers the energy to work towards progress and improvement (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Webb, 2013). Here, the societal impact of hope again comes into play, as hope is seen as a potential force for social transformation. Political thinkers such as Bloch elucidate the pivotal role that hope can play in societal progress due to its potential to spark the imagination of possible new futures, which can help challenge the status quo (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Mandel, 2002 ; Nullens et al., 2016 ). In the second half of the twentieth century, hope as a research topic gained popularity, especially within the fields of psychology and nursing, where the focus shifted to the cognitive, emotional and behavioural components, determinants and effects of hope.

Current Theories

In recent decades, a large body of empirical research has developed on the causes and effects of hope, for example, with regard to performance and wellbeing. Since these studies largely focus on the application of existing theories rather than definitional clarification, they largely build upon existing theories. Consequently, a handful of theories have become very influential in hope research. Perhaps the most well-known theory comes from psychologist Snyder, who defines hope as ‘a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed energy) and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals)’ (2000b: 8). To Snyder, hope is predominantly an individual and cognitive experience. Although he recognizes that other people can be a source of hope, Snyder defines the experience itself as individualistic. Moreover, even though he sees emotions as an important part of the hoping process, Snyder regards them as secondary to cognitive processes and therefore as less central. Based on this theory, Snyder has developed several instruments that are widely used for research on hope (Snyder, 2000a ). Nonetheless, there has also been substantial criticism on this theory, for example, for being too individualistic (Du, 2015), for focusing too much on personal control and agency and too little on trust (Tennen et al., 2002 ), for not sufficiently differentiating hope from optimism (Aspinwall & Leaf, 2002), for dismissing the role of emotion and for deviating substantially from how people experience hope in daily life (Tong et al., 2010 ). Another theory that has been influential in many other studies comes from Herth, a professor in nursing studies (1992). She defines hope as ‘a multidimensional dynamic life-force characterized by a confident yet uncertain expectation of achieving good, which to the hoping person, is realistically possible and personally significant’ (Herth, 1992: 1253). The tool based on this theory, the Herth Hope Index, focuses on expectations, a positive feeling about the future and the social context of hope and is specifically designed to measure hope among patients during periods of illness. Furthermore, the Beck Hopelessness Scale developed by psychiatrist Beck (1974) has been used extensively within several academic fields and defines the absence of hope as ‘a system of negative expectancies concerning [ourselves] and [our] future’ (Beck et al., 1974: 861). One last instrument that has gained importance over the past years is the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths, based on the work of Peterson and Seligman. Here, hope is mainly defined as positive psychological capital that helps people to transcend difficult circumstances. The measuring instrument developed to study hope in this context is very similar to those developed by Snyder (Peterson et al., 2007 ).

Existing Meta-studies

The increasing number of theories and studies on hope have motivated several researchers to perform meta-analyses or reviews of hope research. A large proportion of these reviews focuses on research within health sciences. For example, Hammer and others (2008) investigate several studies on the experience of hope among sick and healthy people, yielding metaphors of hope such as specific hope, hope seen as a light on the horizon and hope seen as weathering a storm. Focusing on the experience of hope among family caregivers of persons with a chronic illness, Duggleby and others (2010) offer a conceptual framework with the following four themes: transitional refocusing from a difficult present to a positive future, dynamic possibilities within uncertainty, pathways of hope, and hope outcomes. Schrank and others (2008) conduct a similar meta-analysis on the definition and effects of hope within psychiatry and categorize the 49 definitions they find in the following seven dimensions: time, an undesirable starting point, goals, likelihood of success, locus of control, relations, and personal characteristics. Several studies have also been conducted within the field of psychology. For example, Alarcon and others (2013) analyse research on hope and optimism and show that the two are related but distinct concepts if they are measured empirically. Reichard and others (2013) systematically review studies on the effects of hope at work and indicate several positive work-outcomes related to hope. Within the field of anthropology, Kleist and Jansen (2016) identify two trends in the literature on hope: ‘an emphasis on hopefulness against all odds and one on specific formations of hope and temporal reasoning’. Although there are several meta-analyses within the confines of a discipline, relatively few focus on multiple disciplines. One notable expectation is a study by Webb (2007), which attempts to disentangle the myriad of competing conceptions of hope from the twentieth century. Webb describes how different conceptions of hope can come to the forefront of different ‘modes of hoping’, including patient hope, critical hope, estimative hope, resolute hope and utopian hope.

The Standard Account of Hope

Thus far, we have seen that there are many divergent approaches to defining hope. Several ‘core elements’, however, seem to be recurrent and can therefore be taken as a starting point in defining hope. The orthodox definition (Martin, 2011 ) or standard account (Meirav, 2009 ) of hope states that there are two dimensions to hope: a desire combined with a belief about the possibility of attaining this desire (Day, 1969). According to this definition, the expected probability of attaining what one hopes for should range between what we believe to be highly improbable to highly likely but cannot contain something that is logically impossible or certain to happen. Footnote 2 Although most, if not all, theories of hope would agree that the orthodox definition offers two necessary conditions for hope, it is much more questionable whether they are also sufficient to describe what hope is. Certainly, when considering the complex experience of hope, the standard account seems to be quite scant. Although it fits within virtually all theories, it also leaves out many elaborations, nuances and discussions, for example, whether hope is experienced individually or socially, whether hope feels positive or negative, whether the object of hope should be important or not, whether hope focuses on a specific goal or is a more general feeling, whether hope is focused on the immediate future or not, whether hope is active or passive, or whether hope mainly manifests as emotion, cognition or behaviour.

The Current Study

Adopting the premise put forth by Webb (2007) that hope can be experienced in different modes and that different (and sometimes even contradictory) characteristics of a hopeful state will be experienced in different contexts, this study aims to offer an overview of these characteristics and how they are related, without assuming that one characterization is necessarily better than another. We assume that all descriptions of hope that are at least somewhat prevalent within at least one scientific discipline have relevance to them and should therefore be considered when giving an overview of the central domains of hope from an interdisciplinary perspective. Even if not all characteristics of hope are obvious in each and every context or study, it is important for those interested in the topic to be aware of perspectives besides of their own. This method will not only help to develop a broader understanding through an awareness of the differences and similarities between perspectives but will also help to position the specific approach adopted relative to others.

To analyse how hope is characterized in different disciplines, a phenomenographic approach is adopted. Phenomenography is a relatively new research method that aims to explore different ways of experiencing or understanding a particular phenomenon (Åkerlind, 2005 ). This approach differs from the more well-known approach of phenomenology Footnote 3 in its focus; while phenomenology focuses on “the structure and meaning of a phenomenon”, phenomenography focuses on “the different ways a group of people understand a phenomenon” (Larsson & Holmström, 2007 ). So, the aim of the phenomenographic approach used in this research is to investigate how different scientific disciplines understand a phenomenon like hope and what characteristics they ascribe to it. Phenomenography is based on a non-dualistic ontology that assumes that a phenomenon neither exists solely as an objective, universal concept in the outside world nor is solely constructed by people’s interpretations in specific contexts. Rather, the phenomenographic approach assumes that a phenomenon is constituted by the relation between the object and different experiences of that object. Thus, although each experience of hope is different from another, these interpretations are related through the commonality in the object. As such, a phenomenon such as hope can be represented by different but logically related categories of description coming from different perspectives. The aim of phenomenography is to offer not only a set of different interpretations but also a ‘logically inclusive structure relating the different meanings’, by analysing how interpretations are related to each other (Åkerlind, 2005 : 323). The approach is particularly appropriate in this study because it can elucidate the characteristics attributed to hope in different disciplines and offer an overview of how these different perspectives are related.

Data Selection

To provide a rich, interdisciplinary overview of perspectives, the sources for this study were checked according to eligibility criteria in four stages. Footnote 4 First, in the Web of Science Core collection, all articles that had the term ‘hope’ listed as an author keyword were selected, which yielded 1,936 documents. Footnote 5 Subsequently, the twenty most-cited articles within the fields of economics and business studies, environmental studies, health studies, history, humanities, philosophy, political science, psychology, social science, theology and youth studies were chosen. Footnote 6 These fields were selected because they included many articles on hope, offered diversity in perspectives and were expected to be most relevant concerning the topic. To account for the fact that older publications have had more time to be cited, we differentiated between sources published before and after 2013, selecting the ten most cited sources from both periods. This yielded 649 articles in total Footnote 7 Footnote 8 . Then, articles were selected if they had a substantial focus on the concept of hope, were scientifically rigorous, and did not solely make use of existing instruments without adding any new interpretation to the theories they were derived from (i.e., the Adult Trait Hope Scale (Snyder et al., 1991), the Values In Action Inventory of Strengths (Peterson & Seligman, 2004 ), the Herth Hope Index (Herth, 1992), the Beck Hopelessness Scale (Beck et al., 1974), and the Goal Specific Hope Scale (Feldman et al., 2009 )). A substantial focus on hope means that articles were excluded if hope was only mentioned a few times or if the article focused on a different type of hope, such as ‘the Cape of Good Hope’ or the ‘the HOPE housing project’. Scientifically rigorous means that opinion articles without references, bachelor’s and master’s theses and articles that were not peer-reviewed were excluded. The reason for excluding articles that solely used existing scales is that these articles would not offer substantial new perspectives in addition to the seminal theories on which they are based, which were already included in the analyses (Beck, 1975; Herth, 1992; Snyder, 2002 ). This process of exclusion yielded a total of 259 articles. At this stage, none of the articles from the field of history could be retained; therefore, this discipline was dropped from the analysis, and ten disciplines remained. Last, the most relevant articles were selected based on the scope of the article and the relevance of the topic (i.e., the characteristics of hope). Here, scope means that the articles that covered more information, such as reviews or meta-analyses, were prioritized. Articles with a very specific population or location were excluded, since this analysis aimed to cover relatively broadly adopted perspectives of hope, i.e. the most common within the respective mono-disciplinary fields, and a focus on such specific context was deemed outside of the scope of this overview. Relevant topics were considered those that focused explicitly on the definition or characteristics of hope. Altogether, 66 articles on the topic of hope from ten different disciplines were included in the overview Footnote 9 . Of these articles, 4 are from the field of economics and business, 7 are from environmental studies, 12 are from health science, 3 are from humanities, 8 are from philosophy, 5 are from political science, 10 are from psychology, 8 are from social sciences, 3 are from theology, 3 are from youth studies and 3 are the seminal studies by Beck (1975) Herth (1992) and Snyder ( 2002 ). No other search engines in addition to the Web of Science core collection were used to find possible eligible studies from additional sources. The aim of this step in the study was not to offer an exhaustive overview of all possible sources on hope within each of the ten disciplines, but to find a sufficiently diverse range of key sources within the disciplines to get a thorough understanding of the most common approaches to hope across these different scientific disciplines (Table 1 ).

Despite including 66 articles on hope in this analysis, potentially important and insightful documents might have been overlooked. However, in addition to the unfeasibility of analysing all articles, books and other outlets ever written on hope, the selection of articles for this study was not designed to be exhaustive within disciplines but to incorporate a sufficient diversity of perspectives across disciplines to offer a reasonably representative interdisciplinary overview.

Data Management and Analysis

The initial analysis was performed using Atlas.ti (8.2.32.0) ( 2018 ), a workbench for the qualitative analysis of large bodies of textual data. Using this program, all parts of the texts were noted that offered either a definition of hope, descriptions of the characteristics of the concept, or clear assumptions about the author’s interpretation of the definition or characteristics of hope. These quotes were all described with several central themes. After an initial trial round of coding using ten randomly chosen articles, the first coding themes were established Footnote 10 . Subsequently, all articles were analysed using the same themes. In total, 1,814 pieces of text were coded. Any citations that did not match an existing theme were coded as ‘other’. After the first round of analyses was completed, all citations coded as ‘other’ were again analysed and assigned to new themes if the same theme was mentioned in at least three separate documents. Out of 322 quotes labelled as ‘other’, 68 could not be matched to a sufficient number of similar quotes to create a new theme. These quotes were therefore not included in the analysis. Overall, 1,746 quotes describing characteristics of hope were labelled with one or more themes in Atlas.ti. This allowed us to: group descriptions into categories, based on similarities and differences (Larsson & Holmström, 2007 ); collect and compare all quotes covering a certain theme; calculate and compare how common different themes are; and to assess which themes are most common in each source or scientific discipline (Table 2 ) Footnote 11 . As such, we were able to discern different perspectives on the characteristics of hope across the ten disciplines and how these perspectives relate to each other.

Reliability

Up to this point, all analyses were performed by one researcher. To assess the reliability of the analyses, two checks were performed. First, two researchers, who had not seen or read the articles before, defined themes for lists of five quotes that were deemed to be related to one theme by the first researcher. No major differences arose between these themes. Any minor differences were discussed, and if necessary, adjustments were made to the theme description. Second, the second and third researchers were offered a list of quotes from five articles and asked to assign themes to these quotes. In 69% of the cases, at least one of the themes assigned to a quote overlapped between researchers, whereas in only 14% of the cases, multiple themes overlapped. Although this may seem a relatively low amount of overlap, we should keep in mind that at this point, 28 different themes were used to label sometimes very complex pieces of text. Moreover, discussion between researchers showed that most, if not all, discrepancies followed from a different focus within the text, rather than disagreement about the content of the text. Furthermore, since these themes were used to describe one concept, they naturally shared some overlap. Even though the themes appeared not to reflect all topics discussed perfectly, the topics that were coded were reflected accurately by the themes. Additionally, the labelling of quotes was not aimed at perfectly or exhaustively reflecting all themes present in the text but at offering a wide variety of common interpretations of hope and the themes that bind these interpretations. For these reasons, we would say that the coding reflected the different themes in these texts relatively well.

To analyse how different characteristics and experiences of hope are related, the 43 themes were listed and then clustered according to shared meaning and combined in an initial scheme by the first researcher. This scheme was evaluated by two other researchers by trying to correctly identify where they thought all themes should fit within the scheme. This discussion led to some adjustments. Several new schemes were proposed and discussed until a consensus was reached about the best way to portray the general relations between the clusters of description. To do so, several new subcategories were created within the themes, and others were combined or somewhat revised. Subsequently, the quotes related to the themes within a cluster were reread to come to a thorough description of each cluster. Finally, all the themes within the clusters were re-evaluated and combined or further categorized if necessary until only several central themes remained within each cluster. The complete classification matrix contains 7 clusters, 39 themes and 6 subthemes and will be discussed in detail in paragraph 5.1.

The results of this study are based on extensive literature but can be presented in a relatively simple classification matrix, which will be discussed in its entirety in Sect. 5. In this section, we will explain step-by-step how this matrix is constructed.

Two Approaches

A first and overarching categorization that can be made regarding the literature on hope is based on a differentiation between two approaches: one is understanding hope as an individual experience and the other is understanding it as a comprehensive context-dependent process . The first approach aims to offer a concise definition of what a person is experiencing when she is hopeful and describes only the most necessary characteristics of this experience. The second approach is based on the assumption that hope is a process without a clear start or end, which is inherently tied to its (social) context. Therefore, the followers of this approach assume that to understand what hope is, we also need to know what gave rise to it, what its objective is, how it affects us, and in which context it exists. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive, and many thinkers offer a theory of hope that is a combination of the two. However, in defining the characteristics of hope, the distinction is valuable, especially since these perspectives can lead to quite different conclusions; for example, when discussing whether hope is individual or social, active or passive, and virtuous or not, while followers of the first approach will state that related issues to hope, such as trust or action tendencies, are not truly part of the hoping experience and should therefore not be taken into consideration, the followers of the second approach would consider these issues as being fundamental to our understanding of what hope truly means to us.

The First Approach: Hope as an Individual Experience

Since the first approach to defining hope is interested in isolating the most essential characteristics of the individual experience of hope, these theories usually look for the smallest amount of necessary and sufficient building blocks. Although perspectives vary, most centre on the themes of desire , an estimate of the probability of attaining this desire and a response to the uncertainty in attaining what we want Footnote 12 .

Although hoping can be distinguished from wishing, a wish or desire is usually considered as a prerequisite for hope (Day, 1969; Eaves et al., 2014). This desire can be either positively or negatively formulated, i.e., as something that we want to achieve or a currently negative situation that we want to leave (Webb, 2010). Imagining possible futures and the mental act of anticipating desired outcomes are important characteristics in this respect and are often taken understood to distinguish hope from simple wishing (Drahos, 2004; Eaves et al., 2014). Hope is about creating a narrative, a plot that makes sense of our developments by creating a link between our current situation and the future (Smith & Sparkes, 2005). This ‘active desiring’ is a creative process that allows us to envision alternative futures, set goals and brace for possible negative outcomes (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Elliot, 2007). Hope is about choosing to focus on the possible good that might happen, despite uncertainties (Kadlac, 2015; Stevenson & Peterson, 2016; Hornsey & Fielding, 2016). Imagination allows us to explore possible future developments and to place our desires within a broader context of possibilities Footnote 13 .

Probability Estimate

Although most, if not all, descriptions of hope include an estimation of the probability of attaining one’s desires, there are quite contradictory ideas about how these probability estimates function, i.e., whether a hoped-for goal should be perceived as being likely or unlikely to happen. On the one hand, there are theories that state that hope is likely to arise when expectations are positive (Schwartz & Post, 2002; Schrank, Stanghellini & Slade, 2008; Hobbs, 2013). In this case, it is assumed that realism differentiates hope from mere wishing or optimism and that hope should be focused on achievable goals (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Bland & Darlington, 2002; Weingarten, 2010; Edera, 2015). Here, it can be stressed that unrealistic or false hopes are at best useless and at worst dangerous since they increase the likelihood of disappointment and distress when hopes are not realized, and they are easy to take advantage of (Wiles, Cott & Gibson, 2008, Webb, 2010). Moreover, it can be assumed that positive expectations should lead to a higher ‘goal commitment’, whereas unrealistic hopes will be more passive Footnote 14 (Hornsey & Fielding, 2016). On the other hand, some theories posit that hope actually flourishes when it is ‘against all odds’ (Kadlac, 2015; Kleist & Jansen, 2016). People can be quite unrealistic in their hopes, sometimes even deliberately, because this helps them to deal with reality, for example, during illness or other misfortune (Benzein, Norberg & Saveman, 2001; Eaves et al., 2014). It could even be assumed that hope is a logical consequence of relatively low expectations, since it ‘arises in situations where we understand our own agency to be limited with respect to the things or conditions that we desire. If our own agencies were not so limited, we would not hope for what we desire; we would simply plan or act so as to achieve it’ (McGeer, 2004). Moreover, some theories posit that hope should be against all evidence, as hope can be a transformative power in cases where outlooks on the future are grim, for example, in repressive or unjust societal contexts (Drahos, 2004; Webb, 2010). However, most theories seem to agree that hoping for something that is (virtually) certain (not) to happen does not make sense.

Experiencing Uncertainty

Since hope is inherently about things that we cannot predict, dealing with uncertainty is an important component of many theories of hope (Webb, 2007; Ojala, 2012; Kadlac, 2015). This means that hope is not about mere wishing or wanting but about choosing to focus on the possibility of attaining one’s desire while acknowledging that it might not happen (Kadlac, 2015). Following this line of thought, expressing hope becomes a way of expressing awareness of this uncertainty; that is, saying that you hope for an event implies that you realize it might not happen (Elliot, 2007). Several theories centre on the idea that cultivating constructive hope is about finding the ‘right’ balance between belief in desired possibilities and an understanding of the chance of failure (Schrank, 2002; Cantor, 2006; Elliot, 2007; Leung et al., 2009). Such a balance should allow individuals to be motivated to pursue their goals while remaining realistic enough to overcome disappointment and resist manipulation by others (Snyder, 2000a ; Eaves, Nichter & Ritenbaugh, 2016; Kleist & Jansen, 2016; McCormick, 2017).

At times when uncertainty plays a large role in the hoping experience, hope appears to become much more process-focused. For example, when hope transcends our current understanding of reality, i.e. when we hope for some kind of positive future without knowing exactly how this future will look, it requires a fundamental openness to the future (Webb, 2010). Quite often, this means that the hoper experiences that being in the process of moving towards some kind of positive state makes sense and has meaning in and of itself, even if they do not know the exact goal (Webb, 2007; Eaves et al., 2014). Taking such a stance grants a certain flexibility to hoping, since it means that disappointment on one specific goal does not imply that hope is lost completely. Rather, hope can focus on new goals that fit within a larger project or on finding new meaning within the current situation (Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009; Eaves et al., 2014). It is only when one loses a sense of openness to the future, when no possibilities seem to exist at all, that one comes to despair (Antelius, 2007).

Layers of Hope: Emotion, Cognition and Behaviour

Most theories state that hope is a multidimensional concept, comprised of, for example, emotional, cognitive, motivational, social and identity-related components (Snyder, 2000a , 2000b ; Folkman 2010; Ojala, 2012; Webb, 2013). The existence of such a ‘ multi-layered’ hopeful experience could explain why it is possible in some instances to maintain hope on one level while simultaneously experiencing decreasing hope or even despair on another level or to have contradictory hopes (Weingarten, 2010; Eaves et al., 2014; Jansen, 2016). For example, even when hearing bad news about the chances of attaining one’s goals and while fully understanding how this affects us, we might still feel hopeful. In practice, different degrees and expressions of these components of hope can generate quite various and very specific types of hope Footnote 15 (Kleist & Jansen, 2016). Considering this diversity of ways in which hope can be experienced, some thinkers question whether hope is truly one experience or whether it is actually a complex ‘syndrome’ or a collection of thoughts, feelings, actions and expressions (Ojala, 2012, Eaves, Nichter & Ritenbaugh, 2016). However, there is little agreement about which components exactly make up the ‘hopeful syndrome’. Here, we consider the three components that are, by far, mentioned most often, namely, cognition, emotion and motivation.

Cognition is an important part of many theories of hope. Mentioned often in this regard is that hope comprises an assessment of the future and our chances of attaining our desires (Drahos, 2004; Kadlac, 2015; Luthans & Youssef, 2007; Snyder, 2000a , 2000b ). Here, hope is regarded as the mental act of anticipating and imagining a future situation and as such serves as a psychological resource, as it helps us prepare for and address changes in our lives (Luthans, 1997; Drahos, 2004; Webb, 2010). Moreover, it can be stressed that hope usually does not come and go without our conscious deliberation. Contrary to strong physiological emotions such as fear, which can be processed rather unconsciously, it could be said that hope virtually always requires at least some conscious cognitive activity, such as creativity and flexibility in dealing with the information at hand (Bar-Tal, 2001). Additionally, the cognitive component of hope surfaces in its problem-solving focus. Hope is at least partly about constructive thinking, i.e., taking in information and actively using it to achieve our goals (Ojala, 2012). It is therefore perhaps not surprising that strongly cognitive hopes are often seen as being more realistic than mostly emotional ones (Hobbs, 2013).

However, there are also several arguments to be made that indicate that hope is mostly an emotion . First, some writers stress that thoughts about achieving a desired goal are merely sources of hope and not part of hope itself. According to them, hope is about the positive emotion that accompanies these thoughts (Boukala & Dimitrakopoulou, 2017; Hornsey & Fielding, 2016). Others do not preclude hopeful thoughts as part of the experience but do state that the way in which hope is usually expressed indicates that the emotional component is much more important (Leung et al., 2009). These writers, for example, stress that hope can be hard to control, has a feeling tone, involves appraisal and often motivates behaviour, which are all characteristics of emotion (Cohen-Chen et al., 2014; Poels & Dewitte, 2008; Scioli et al., 2011). Moreover, it is sometimes stressed that hope cannot be purely or even mainly cognitive, since it often covers issues that cannot be fully known and require a great deal of faith in things that stretch beyond the strictly rational (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997).

Another component of hope that is often mentioned is its motivational force . Some thinkers state that hope is fundamentally active, since it involves thinking about possible pathways to achieving one’s goals and how to sustain this action (Snyder, 2000a , 2000b ; Schwartz & Post, 2002; Stevenson & Peterson, 2016; Kleist & Jansen, 2016). Others stress that hope can and sometimes even should be quite passive. The things we hope for are uncertain and not always within our control, so it is sometimes wiser to adopt a stance of humility and wait and see (Halpin, 2001; Braithwaite, 2004; Edera, 2015). However, most theories are somewhere in between; they state that although hope is not necessarily active, it does imply a ‘readiness’ to act (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Webb, 2007; Poels & Dewitte, 2008; Pechenino, 2015). Hope indicates that ‘our interests, our concerns, our desires, our passions-all of these continue to be engaged by what can be; hence, we lean into the future ready to act when actions can do some good’ (McGeer, 2004). This motivational force is especially apparent when it helps people to persevere in difficult circumstances or in the absence of certainties (Smith & Sparkes, 2005; Zigon, 2009; Ojala, 2012; Reichard et al., 2013; Webb, 2013; Hornsey & Fielding, 2016).

Therefore, it is quite plausible that the ‘hopeful syndrome’ entails at least cognitive, emotional and motivational components. Moreover, there are several other components that are perhaps not always present but can still be important in understanding some expressions of hope. For example, hope can have a strong spiritual component, can be a virtuous act, and can be about mastery or social interaction (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009; Scioli et al., 2011; Ojala, 2012; Kadlac, 2015; Griggs & Walker, 2016). There is probably no way to definitely determine which components of our experience truly are part of hope, but it seems plausible that it is never just one of these. Thus, hope is the complete process of interwoven moments of thinking and feeling, or a ‘unifying and grounding force of human agency’ (Drahos, 2004; McGeer, 2004; Webb, 2010).

The Second Approach: Hope as a Context-Dependent Process

While the first overarching approach to defining hope puts much effort in delineating what is and is not hope, the second approach seems to be based on the idea that it is practically impossible to pinpoint where hope starts and ends since it is a process without a clear beginning or end, and because it is inherently tied to its social context . The aim of this approach is to understand which parts of the context and process of hope fundamentally alter its meaning.

Hope as a Process

Similar to general emotion in appraisal theories, hope can be perceived as a process, i.e., as an episode involving several changing components, such as appraisal, motivation, physiological responses, behaviour and feelings. Moreover, each such change can provide feedback to the other components (Moors et al., 2013 ). As such, hope becomes a cyclical process; how we evaluate our circumstances might affect how we feel, which in turn can spark motivation, which again changes how we perceive our situation. Rather than an emotional state, which is relatively static, defining hope as a process means that what hope entails changes over time, that the experience of hope can influence itself, and that it is therefore very difficult to mark a start and end to it (Elliot & Olver, 2007).

In the literature on hope, we do indeed find several mentions of the cyclical character of the experience. For example, when followed over time, people report decreases and increases in different dimensions of hope. Since hope involves a process of the ‘appraisal of possible outcomes, cognitive analysis for maintaining and achieving hopes, and goal pursuit’ (Leung et al., 2009), we constantly adjust our hopes to our perceived chances of success (Luthans & Youssef, 2007). This is especially apparent among patients with long-term illnesses such as cancer or chronic pain; here, hope can change from being wishful, small and utopian to realistic, large and practical in a relatively short time frame, based on experiences, expectations and the possibility of a cure (Benzein, Norberg & Saveman, 2001; Eaves et al., 2014; Eaves, Nichter & Ritenbaugh, 2016). Additionally, hope depends on the amount of time that people have had to assess and cope with their situation (Folkman, 2010; Wiles, Cott & Gibson, 2008) and on the amount of time that people have had to better understand their own desires (Kadlac, 2015). Especially during difficult times, people can intentionally maintain hopes that they know are unrealistic because they need something to hold on to. Given enough time, such wishful hoping can transform into accepting reality, if people can come to terms with it or if they start to get attached to different, more attainable hopes (Eaves et al., 2014). Moreover, what we hope for is strongly influenced by the stories or narratives people construct about themselves, their surroundings and their hopes (Antelius, 2007). Similarly, such developments can occur on a social or societal level. The stories we tell about our (shared) history can instil discontent about our current situation and a shared longing for a better future. Politicians, for example, often use these types of narratives to spark societal change by appealing to shared hopes (Bar-Tal, 2001; Duggleby et al., 2010; Cohen-Chen et al., 2014; Kleist & Jansen, 2016). As such, our constantly changing history influences how we perceive ourselves and what we hope for (Esteves et al., 2013; Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009).

Hope in Context

Although hope can often be a highly personal experience centred around personal responsibility and convictions about the world and our chances of attaining what we want (Drahos, 2004; Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009; McGeer, 2004; Snyder, 2000a ), hope literature also often discusses the impact of our direct social surroundings, such as friends and family, but also more distant influences, such as institutional, political, cultural and economic contexts. Such social contexts appear to play a role in different parts of the hope process. Other contexts can be a source of hope, for example, by teaching us to be hopeful, by helping us achieve our goals, or by ensuring a sense of meaning, trust and self-worth (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Elliot, 2007; Du & King, 2013). Our sense of hope can have many effects on others, for example, in giving others hope or comfort (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Boukala & Dimitrakopoulou, 2017). However, we can also experience shared hopes when goals are shared and people engage with these hopes together (Weingarten, 2010; Torres & Tayne, 2017). Moreover, when asked about their hopes, a substantial portion of people report that others, or their relation to others, are the object of their hopes (Bland & Darlington, 2002; Howell et al., 2015 ).

Nonetheless, hope is often not regarded as a purely ‘social emotion’, in the sense that its primary function is not always to serve a social function (Hareli & Parkinson, 2008 ). However, the reason the social dimension is often deemed to be so important in understanding what hope is seems to lie in the understanding that the process we go through is inherently connected to others; others influence what we deem possible, desirable, how we define ourselves and our future, and therefore how we hope. This indicates that, even if hope itself might often be experienced individually, we would have only a limited understanding of hope if we were to disregard this social context completely.

The Classification Matrix

How do we synthesize the idea that hope can encompass a broad, context-dependent process, while some theories choose to focus on the individual experience? In our classification matrix, we assume that the process of hope, i.e., the development of different components of a hopeful experience, and the context of hope, i.e., the individual or internal and social or external developments, make up two axes along which we can classify different characteristics of hopeful experiences.

First, regarding the process component, we differentiate between the sources of hope, the experience of hope and the effects of hope. The distinction between these stages is not always completely clear-cut; as discussed previously, there are many relations and feedback loops between these phases, leading to border cases and cross-categories. However, here, we try to make a distinction between the experience of hope itself on one side and the events that cause hope to develop and the effects that hope have on the other. We include these sources and effects because we assume that they fundamentally affect how we understand the hope process that they become part of.

Second, we divide the social-context component into external and internal processes of hope. While the internal component here refers only to the individual Footnote 16 , the external component is much more comprehensive; it comprises a wide range of contexts such as friends and family, society at large, politics, culture, etcetera Footnote 17 . The reason for combining these contexts into one category is that, on top of the unfeasibility of creating different categories for each context we live in, these external processes often share important commonalities compared to individual experiences, in that they are usually less within our control, cannot always be fully comprehended, can be much more abstract, and to a greater degree, require trust in some unknown.

We combine these two categorizations since the different stages of the hoping process take place in all types of social contexts and, conversely, different social contexts go through several stages of the hoping process. Together, this results in both internal and external sources of hope, internal and external experiences of hope, and internal and external effects of hope. We therefore take the individual experience of hope, which is the main focus of the first approach to defining hope, to be one part of this classification matrix, since it relates only to one moment in the hoping process and one social context (see Fig.  1 ).

First step in the classification matrix of hope. Two approaches: hope as an individual experience (1) and hope as a context-dependent process (2)

Last, one important component of hope falls outside of these descriptions, namely, the object of hope, i.e., what we hope for Footnote 18 . Since this object lies outside the experience of the hoper themselves, it does not lend itself to be analysed as a lived experience and is therefore placed outside of the axes. However, since it is often regarded as fundamentally affecting how we can define hope, it is still included in the classification matrix.

In Detail: Sources and Effects of Hope and Social Experience

Thus far, we have discussed the two overarching approaches to defining hope. On the one hand, there are theories that try to discern hope’s most central elements, and on the other hand, there are theories that treat hope as a broad, contextualized process. One approach is not necessarily better than the other, but if we take the second approach seriously, then solely focusing on the individual experience of hope at all times would limit our understanding. Here, we will therefore further focus on the elements of hope that follow from defining hope as a context-dependent process, i.e., internal and external sources , external experience , and internal and external effects . We will give several examples of these categories and cover the themes that are discussed most often in the literature on hope, but we do not aim to be exhaustive; there are many possible sources, experiences and effects of hope. However, we aim to discuss only those components that fundamentally alter what it means to hope.

Internal Sources

Under the category ‘internal sources’ of hope, we gather all feelings, traits and circumstances that take place within and originate from an individual’s personal experience that can cause someone to be hopeful or increase the strength of their hope.

First, several theories state that hope is an inherent, biological human tendency, since humans are always searching for improvements to their circumstances (McGeer, 2004 ; Webb, 2010 ; Scioli et al., 2011 ). Dissatisfaction plays an important role in this regard, as it signifies that things are not (yet) how we want them to be, leading to action or at least hope for change (Webb, 2010). Nonetheless, it seems that this innate tendency to hope can be thwarted, especially when previous experiences have led to (repeated) disillusionments, thereby making people less prone to be hopeful (Edara, 2015). Experiencing repeated success, on the other hand, can encourage hope (Ojala, 2012 ; Pecchenino, 2015 ).

Since hope is about achieving possible but not certain events, assumptions about our own abilities are very important. Indeed, several writers state that confidence, self-worth and personal control are important, perhaps even necessary, for developing hope (Folkman, 2010; Krause & Hayward, 2015; Pechenino, 2015). Moreover, other personal traits can influence how likely a person is to be hopeful. What is deemed possible to achieve, for example, depends on personal characteristics, such as age, gender, health, disability, etc. (Leung et al., 2009; Pecchenino, 2015). Also mentioned particularly often in this regard is one’s personality, specifically traits such as courage, humility, modesty, serenity, security, humour, malleability belief (i.e., the belief that reality can be influenced) and locus of control (i.e., the belief that we have personal control over our environment) (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Vilaythong et al., 2003; Webb, 2010; Du & King, 2013; Cohen-Chen et al., 2014; Kadlac, 2015).

Although some writers state that hope can be sparked by temporary positive emotions or mood (Bland & Darlington, 2002), others stress that hope is a complex and at least partially cognitive phenomenon, meaning that hope requires creative, conscious and rational thinking (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Bar-Tal, 2001; Weingarten, 2010; Cohen-Chen et al., 2014) and that hope therefore can be a deliberate choice , i.e., choosing to focus on the possibility of a positive outcome rather than that of a negative outcome (Bland & Darlington, 2002; Weingarten, 2010). Hoping itself can be considered a virtuous act if people choose to ‘equip’ themselves with it as a resource to keep them pursuing what is right, even in the presence of uncertainties and disappointment (Zigon, 2009; Weingarten, 2010; Insole, 2015) (Fig. 2 ).

Internal sources of hope in the classification matrix

External Sources

External sources of hope can encompass all types of events, circumstances and influences that exist outside of an individual. This domain can thus refer either to a close friend or family member, a work environment, societal institutes, a god or a worldwide development such as globalization or climate change. Here, we discuss some components that are mentioned particularly often in the literature.

Our direct social circle can be very important in determining our hopes, for example, by teaching us to and ‘infecting’ us with hope, especially during childhood (Schwartz & Post, 2002; Snyder, 2000a ; Webb, 2013), by providing a constructive and safe environment in which hope can develop (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Leung et al., 2009; McGeer, 2004; Schwartz & Post, 2002) and by providing feedback on how we are functioning and how worthwhile our hopes are (Eaves et al., 2014; Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Pecchenino, 2015). It is therefore perhaps not surprising that education is often mentioned as an important source of hope. During youth, we can learn that our agency may be limited but that it is still worthwhile to pursue what we deem to be valuable (McGeer, 2004; Webb, 2007; Kerret, Orkibi & Ronen, 2016). Moreover, similar to having trust in ourselves, hope can originate from trust in others and their abilities to help us achieve our hopes, as this trust offers support, safety and confidence, even in times of disillusionment or lack of personal control (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Stevenson & Peterson, 2016), and as it undergirds the fundamental feeling that life can be positive (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009).

Culture also plays an important role in this regard, as hope is valued differently in varying cultures and children thus learn different ideas about the importance of hope (Smith & Sparkes, 2005). For example, in Catholic contexts, maintaining hope is considered very important, sometimes even more important than conveying a sad (but real) truth (Toscani & Maestroni, 2006). In Asian cultures, hope is often about what is attainable or reasonable rather than what is ideal (Wang, Joy & Sherry, 2013). Western cultures, on the other hand, seem to value optimism and hope a great deal by making hopeful expressions very infectious and sometimes even somewhat mandatory (Eaves, Nichter & Ritenbaugh, 2016).

Furthermore, well-functioning societal institutes such as judicial systems, police forces, national governments or scientific institutes can be important prerequisites for developing as well as maintaining hope, as they offer the required safety and societal structure to live a good life and attain personal and societal progress (Braithwaite, 2004; Drahos, 2004; Stevenson & Peterson, 2016). History plays an important role in this regard. Experiencing repeated disappointment of hopes, for example, during intractable conflict, can create apathy, hopelessness and distrust (Cohen-Chen et al., 2014). Moreover, this is also a matter of politics , since hope is usually not equally distributed in society, i.e., some groups, such as minorities or disadvantaged groups, are offered less hope by their surroundings (Kleist & Jansen, 2016). At the same time, poverty or deprivation means that solutions that claim to offer hope are in great demand (Drahos, 2004).

Additionally, as work is an important part of most people’s lives, the organizations we work in can greatly impact the hopes that we experience. By offering opportunities to grow and uphold a corporate culture of fairness, employees are more likely to develop hopes for themselves and the company at large, which will in turn affect their performance (Reichard et al., 2013; Schwartz & Post, 2002).

Especially in cases where the answer to one’s hopes cannot easily be found in either oneself or in one’s direct or indirect environment, a personal faith system can become an important source of hope (Eaves, Nichter & Ritenbaugh, 2016). Such a faith can be but does not need to be religious (Scioli et al., 2011). Rather, such faith is about having ‘affective, normative, spiritual, and relational resources that are typically excluded from the process of knowing’ and therefore creating a deep trust that things might work out well in the future without requiring direct proof (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Bland & Darlington, 2002; Toscani & Maestroni, 2006) (Fig. 3 ).

External sources of hope in the classification matrix

Social Experience of Hope

When individual hopes are shared by a number of people, often in response to societal or political developments, they can become a ‘public’, ‘social’ or ‘shared’ hope (Bar-Tal, 2001; Drahos, 2004; Atwater, 2007; Elliot & Olver, 2007; Weingarten, 2010; Kleist & Jansen, 2016). Such social hopes often rely on the same components as the individual experience of hope, i.e., desire, a probability estimate and uncertainty, although there are also some differences.

First, shared desire , which is based on collective visions and imaginations of what makes a meaningful and dignified life, can arise within a small group of people, such as a family, but can also arise at a societal level when a shared (national) history of images, ideals, values and ‘ultimate concerns’ affect how we think about life and progress (Kleist & Jansen, 2016; Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997). For example, metanarratives, which cover recurring themes in political, philosophical, cultural discussions, can greatly influence what large groups of people strive for. This is illustrated by modernist metanarratives of the twentieth century, which attached great value to progress, agency and control over our own lives. This way of thinking greatly influenced how we now think about hope for wealth, health and wellbeing, i.e., things that are within our control as long as we put our minds to them (Snyder, 2002 ; Antelius, 2007; Kleist & Jansen, 2016; Singh, 2016; Smith & Sparkes, 2005). Second, a shared probability estimate is an important component of the social experience of hope. We can only hope for the things we assume to be possible, which in turn largely depends on societal expectations and assumptions (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Pecchenino, 2015). Since these ideas can be highly ‘infectious’, they can become a shared sense of pessimism or optimism and thus become the core of social hope (Bar-Tal, 2001; Schwartz & Post, 2002). Moreover, in regard to societal issues such as climate change, hope can be displayed by placing trust in societal institutes and technical and scientific developments (Ojala, 2012; Eaves et al., 2014; Stevenson & Peterson, 2016). Conversely, societal institutes such as the state can also distribute hope unequally among different groups of people due to the different opportunities that are offered to them (Schwartz & Post, 2002; Kleist & Jansen, 2016). As such, marginalized groups can structurally experience less hope than other groups. Third, because social hope depends upon the behaviour and solidarity of others, uncertainty and trust are specifically important. The role of uncertainty is twofold; on the one hand, uncertainty can create suspicion and anxiety, while on the other hand, uncertainty can also be the main driver of hope. Especially in times of great adversity, the possibility that things might change and get better can imply greater hope (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Scioli et al., 2011; Kadlac, 2015). During intractable conflict, for example, people need to believe that things can change to remain hopeful (Cohen-Chen et al., 2014). Fourth, similar to individual hope, social hope involves many different layers of experience , such as beliefs and assumptions, emotions, mobilization and values. For example, there are many shared narratives surrounding social hope, i.e., stories that we share to depict what a positive or alternative future could look like (Smith, 2015; Torres & Tayne, 2017). Moreover, the tendency to develop hopeful thoughts and assumptions can be taught, especially during childhood (Snyder, 2002 ; Webb, 2010). Similarly, groups of people can share the same hopeful emotions, i.e., a feeling of transcendence, belonging, trust and possibility (Bar-Tal, 2001; Benzein, Norberg & Saveman, 2001; Boukala & Dimitrakopoulou, 2017). Moreover, shared hope can imply a strong motivation for the mobilization of large groups of people, for example, during social conflict or in addressing societal issues (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Pecchenino, 2015; Stevenson & Peterson, 2016).

Although individual and social hope share important components, social hope usually functions somewhat differently. In the experience of social hope, hopers usually do not receive feedback on their progress as often, easily or quickly as compared with individual hopers. As a result, social hope can have unexpected effects and remain influential long after the initial ‘hopers’ have moved on (Drahos, 2004). Moreover, shared hope can be somewhat more stable or long-term, as temporary or individual doubts and fears are less likely to translate to hopelessness, since the hope is shared across individuals and people can ‘infect’ each other with optimism (Wang, Joy & Sherry, 2013). Moreover, this means that trust is even more important, since people need to believe that others will align with their attempts to achieve shared goals (Braithwaite, 2004) (Fig. 4 ).

The social experience of hope in the classification matrix

Internal Effects

There are many possible effects of a hopeful stance for an individual. For example, hope can be an important activating force (Schrank, 2002; Snyder, 2002 ; Aspinwall, 2005; Poels & Dewitte, 2008; Kadlac, 2015; McCormick, 2017) and can help people stay committed, even in times of adversity or in the absence of certainties (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Zigon, 2009; Scioli et al., 2011; Ojala, 2012; Reichard et al., 2013). Many reasons have been mentioned explaining this motivational force. For example, hope is believed to usually entail an increased belief in our own and other people’s capacities to create change, thereby making action seem more fruitful (Alarcon, Bowling & Khazon, 2013; Hornsey & Fielding, 2016; Stevenson & Peterson, 2016). Others stress that hope gives a ‘zest for life’, thereby helping a person to take action (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009). Additionally, the creative aspects of hope are assumed to open up non-conformist thoughts and behaviours (Kleist & Jansen, 2016). Likewise, the uncertainty of hope is believed to demand that the hoper remain active and thus prevents apathy (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Alarcon, Bowling & Khazon, 2013; Cohen-Chen et al., 2014). Again, others state that the positive feeling that accompanies hopefulness increases the ‘thoroughness, efficiency and flexibility of problem solving’ (Leung et al., 2009; Ojala, 2012). Finally, people who are hopeful are usually more focused on their goals and on information that might help them achieve those goals (Snyder, 2000a , 2000b ; Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009 Webb, 2010; Ojala, 2012 Cohen-Chen et al., 2014). As such, hope generally makes people more inclined to reach goals that are important to them. Nonetheless, hope can also be quite passive (Hobbs, 2013). Generally, writers on hope assume that hopes based on denial or unrealistic fantasy are more likely to lead to apathy and to turn out to be counterproductive (Leung et al., 2009; Ojala, 2012; Hornsey & Fielding, 2016).

However, even unrealistic hope can help people by offering a chance for personal development and by offering positive feelings and comfort to get through difficult times (Folkman, 2010; Weingarten, 2010; Eaves, Nichter & Ritenbaugh, 2016). Hope has been linked to positive moods, physical and psychosocial well-being, coping, adjustment, self-esteem, resilience, trust, feelings of safety and a willingness to live (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Webb, 2007; Duggleby et al., 2010; Folkman, 2010; Stevenson & Peterson, 2016; Griggs & Walker, 2016; McCormick, 2017). Alternately, hopelessness has been identified as an important feature of depression (Beck et al., 1974). However, hope can also make people prone to disappointment , thereby leading to feelings of loss and hurt if one’s goals are not achieved (Kadlac, 2015).

Moreover, by linking our current personal situation to larger developments and possible future scenarios, hope can create a sense of meaning and purpose in life (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Nekolaichuk, Jerne & Maguire, 1999; Antelius, 2007; Griggs & Walker, 2016; Kleist & Jansen, 2016). A general sense of hopefulness can imply that someone believes that ‘being en route makes sense and has meaning’ (Webb, 2010). As such, hope can enrich people and help them transcend their current situation since it creates a feeling of being part of something larger than oneself in that moment (Benzein, Norberg & Saveman, 2001; Bland & Darlington, 2002; Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009; Coulehan, 2011; Scioli et al., 2011; Eaves, Nichter & Ritenbaugh, 2016). Alternately, without hope, people can become indifferent to all options and lose their sense of purpose in life (Pecchenino, 2015). By creating a sense of transcendence, humility and openness to the future, hope can also instil faith in people and even lead to spiritual experiences (Halpin, 2001; Zigon, 2009; Eaves et al., 2014; Edera, 2015; Eaves, Nichter & Ritenbaugh, 2016) (Fig. 5 ).

Internal effects of hope in the classification matrix

External Effects

Both individual and social hope can have many effects that take place outside of the individual. For example, hope can help smooth social interactions , since hopefulness often goes hand in hand with outgoingness and an openness towards one’s environment, which makes people more likely to forge relationships and get along with others (Halpin, 2001). Moreover, it is generally assumed that hope can help us deal with disagreement and conflict, which are inevitable in any relation (Bland & Darlington, 2002; Zigon, 2009). Furthermore, understanding and appreciating the hopes of others can increase empathy and thus create solidarity (Kadlac, 2015). This means that if social hope is effective, people will most likely be willing to collaborate to achieve their shared hopes or even to sacrifice part of their own wellbeing in the interest of the larger community (Braithwaite, 2004). Additionally, hope can function as a socially shared capital that infects others and thus creates a culture of hope (Wang, Joy & Sherry, 2013). It is therefore perhaps not surprising that hopeful pedagogies and education have been advocated to counter pessimistic or fatalistic sentiments within society (Halpin, 2001; Webb, 2010).

As a possible source for solidarity and understanding, hope can also be an incentive for virtuous or ethical behaviour . Of course, nothing stops people from hoping for unvirtuous goals, and hoping in and of itself does not need to be virtuous; however, hope can be used to maintain ethical (and often difficult) behaviour. Additionally, by resisting the idea that things cannot be different, hope can instil the desire to challenge and improve the status quo (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997). For example, sharing and talking about hope can help people create a ‘counter-story’, i.e., an imagination of possible alternatives to current circumstances (Kleist & Jansen, 2016; Torres & Tayne, 2017). Moreover, hope can ‘place immediate circumstances in the context of broader and deeper possibilities’, which can help us transcend our personal needs and create a desire to help others (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Eaves et al., 2014).

By creating trust in our collective ability, hope can mobilize large groups of people , for example, in the case of political protests or in addressing societal problems such as climate change (Bar-Tal, 2001; Braithwaite, 2004; Webb, 2010; Weingarten, 2010; Cohen-Chen et al., 2014; Kadlac, 2015; Hornsey & Fielding, 2016; Kleist 2016; Singh, 2016). Over time, such hopes can accumulate to become a form of cultural capital and create a shared feeling of identity . One example of this is the reference to the ‘audacity of hope’ in Barack Obama’s rhetoric, i.e., ‘a rhetoric of hope as the use of symbols to get Americans to care about this’country’ (Atwater, 2007: 123). As such, hope can become a type of ‘social imagining’ that brings people together and guides collective action, often towards what is assumed to be a moral image of a better world (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997).

However, the effects of hope on a societal scale are not always positive, since it can also be abused to manipulate people. By attributing hope or hopelessness to specific groups or developments, politicians can, for example, discursively create and strengthen divides within society (Boukala & Dimitrakopoulou, 2017). Moreover, by creating vague hopes of ‘greatness’ without exactly explicating what this should look like, people can be mobilized towards goals that will hurt them on the long run (Sleat, 2013). Furthermore, if collective hope is systematically disappointed, this can result in ‘a widespread sense of affective malaise’ or societal disillusionment (Kleist & Jansen, 2016) (Fig. 6 ).

External effects of hope in the classification matrix

The Object of Hope

The object of hope has quite a peculiar place in the hoping process; although it is what hope is ultimately aimed at, we often do not need to know exactly what someone is hoping for to understand their general hopeful feeling. However, there are some general distinctions to be made, which also affect how we characterize the overall experience.

A first important remark is that there does not always need to be a clear, explicit object to hope. Many theories differentiate between particularized hope , which is focused on a specific goal, and generalized hope , which is more a global feeling that there is some positive future we long for without exactly knowing what that future will look like (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Elliot, 2007; Kadlac, 2015). In French, this is the difference between individual, specific ‘espoir’ and a more general, fundamental ‘espérance’ (Webb, 2010). While the first is usually short-term and bounded by real-life limitations and conditions, the second is a more underlying, robust feeling (Halpin, 2001; Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009).

Having an object to our hope does not necessarily require much involvement or engagement. One might hope to contribute to mitigating climate change, but as long as one does not attach any consequences to this hope, it remains largely abstract and passive. It is only once one starts to translate hopes into goals that the object becomes a tangible and engaged part of hoping. Goal-setting , i.e., translating desires into tangible outcomes to be pursued, is therefore an important part of many hope theories (Snyder, 2000a , 2000b ; Schwartz & Post, 2002; Leung et al., 2009; Griggs & Walker, 2016). Practising with goalsetting is an important part of learning to be reasonable in one’s hopes (Snyder, 2000a , 2000b ; Webb, 2010; Kerrett, 2016). Functioning as tangible and concrete benchmarks, goals allow people to test their abilities and control, thereby providing them with important information about what they can realistically hope for and helping them to maintain hope in the future (Luthans & Youssef, 2007; Leung et al., 2009; Pecchenino, 2015). Moreover, goalsetting can help individuals and groups of people clarify what their desires truly are and whether their hopes are still aligned (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Kadlac, 2015).

Theoretically, just about anything we can imagine could be an object of hope. However, some writers draw attention to specific types of objects that might otherwise be overlooked. For example, an object of hope can be both individual, shared or of someone else (Benzein, Norberg & Saveman, 2001; Du & King, 2013); lies most often in the future but can also be in the present or past (Benzein & Saveman, 1998; Hammer, Mogensen & Hall, 2009; Webb, 2010; Ojala, 2012; Hornsey & Fielding, 2016; Griggs & Walker, 2016); and can be categorized into a prevention goal, i.e., something we want to avoid, or a promotion goal, i.e., something we want to achieve (Poels & Dewitte, 2008; Leung et al., 2009; Hornsey & Fielding, 2016).

In addition to ideas about what the object of hope can be, there are also many ideas about what the object of hope should be. Mentioned most often in this regard is that the object of hope should be realistic , i.e., sensible and attainable (Weingarten, 2010; Hobbs, 2013), and significant to the hoper (Webb, 2013; Griggs & Walker, 2016). Moreover, to count as a virtuous hope, it is claimed that the object should be about virtuous objects such as moral progress, humanization, salvation, or a more just society (Webb, 2010; Edara, 2015; Insole, 2015; Kadlac, 2015; Torres & Tayne, 2017).

Moreover, the mere possibility of attaining a hoped-for object can exert a normative influence on our behaviour (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Elliot, 2007; Torres & Tayne, 2017). For example, even the possibility of a cure for a disease can be used to tell people they ought to seek treatment as soon as possible (Cantor, 2006), or the imagination of a peaceful, prospering society can be used to persuade people to vote or become politically mobilized (Drahos, 2004). Here, the possibility of the object of hope seems to put people in a position where they are deemed responsible to act on it, even if perhaps they themselves feel reluctant to do so (Fig. 7 ).

The object of hope in the classification matrix

The Complete Classification Matrix

In this study, we have discussed two different approaches to characterizing hope, which together elucidate seven important domains of the hoping phenomenon. The first approach focuses on what thinkers in this tradition assume is the most essential part of hope: the individual experience. This approach aims to distil the most necessary elements of this individual feeling. The second approach defines hope as a context-dependent process and assumes that to understand what hope is, we also need to know its sources and outcomes, understand the interplay between the internal and external dimensions, and know what object it is focused on.

The seven components that follow from our classification matrix (see Fig.  8 ) are internal and external sources, the individual and social experience of hope, internal and external effects, and the object of hope. There are numerous examples of these components, and herein we have discussed some of the most-often mentioned examples. This overview is not exhaustive but aims to offer a structured overview of the characteristics ascribed to hope in the current literature.

The complete classification matrix of hope

All in all, we can understand hope as a broad phenomenon comprising a process from source to experience and outcome, which has both individual and social aspects and is affected by its object. The individual experience of hope is an important part of this process and might often feel more central and essential to the individual hoper. However, to fully understand what hope can be, it is important to be aware of the context in which it arises.

Existing Theories and the Classification Matrix

How can this classification matrix be used to inform research on hope? Of course, each study and discipline has its specific focus, and not all dimensions of this classification matrix are immediately relevant in each context; however, being aware of a broader understanding can show which dimensions might be overlooked. Here, we will briefly discuss a few well-known theories on hope and how they relate to our classification matrix.

Positive Psychology: Snyder’s Hope Theory

The hope theory posited by psychologist Snyder is well known and often used, especially within the field of positive psychology. Defining hope as ‘a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed energy) and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals)’’ (2000b: 8), this theory focuses mostly on the internal sources, experience and effects of hope. Concerning the internal experience, Snyder’s theory assumes that hope involves a positive probability estimate, i.e., high agency, and a positive response to uncertainty, i.e., finding different pathways in the event of setbacks. Snyder also focuses on different layers of hope and favours the influence of cognition and motivation over that of emotion. In regard to internal effects, this theory focuses on action tendencies, and less so on for example, meaning, personal development and comfort. Moreover, this theory offers openings for research on internal sources of hope, especially those focusing on previous experiences. Although external sources of hope are recognized as being possibly important, they are not recognized as inherently affecting what it means to hope. All and all, there are several parts of the broader hope phenomenon that attract less attention in this theory. First, the social components of hope are either rarely mentioned or not mentioned at all. Additionally, the object of hope is not explicitly mentioned as being important in this theory. Additionally, several elements of the individual process, such as different sources and effects and the experience of desire, are not elaborated upon.

Herth’s Hope Theory

The theory that is most often used within nursing comes from Herth. She defines hope as ‘a multidimensional dynamic life-force characterized by a confident yet uncertain expectation of achieving good, which to the hoping person, is realistically possible and personally significant’ (Herth, 1992: 1253). This theory, as well as important works within nursing, has a strong focus on expectations (i.e., probability estimate of the internal experience); on behaviour and comfort, such as healthy living and medicine adherence (i.e., internal effects); and on external sources of hope, for example, on the support that is provided by friends and family, health care providers, scientific advancements and some form of transcendence or spirituality. In some instances, there is also attention given to the object of hope, for example, concerning the question of whether people hope for something specific or have a more general sense of hopefulness and how large and significant the object of hope is to the hoper. The theory opens up the possibility for research on other dimensions of the hope phenomenon, such as internal sources, social experiences and external effects, yet these are not inherently embedded within Herth’s theory.

Social Sciences

Within the social sciences, there is much more heterogeneity in how hope is defined, perhaps partly because the topic is less common, and the research therefore somewhat more fragmented. Within political science and anthropology, the focus is, perhaps unsurprisingly, on the external side of the hoping phenomenon, i.e., external sources, such as social unrest, politics, culture and history; the social experience of hope; and external effects, such as societal mobilization, solidarity through social bonding and social identity through shared meaning. To a lesser extent, there is a focus on the object of hope, specifically as it relates to being aware of the normative effects of goalsetting.

Across disciplines, awareness is growing that subjective experiences such as hope have a strong explanatory power in regard to individual and social behaviours. Consequently, the number of studies on hope is quickly growing. However, an interdisciplinary framework was hitherto lacking, which hindered interdisciplinary and practical research on the meaning and role of hope in context. In this study, phenomenographic analyses were used to understand how different disciplines characterize hope and how these different approaches are related. The results show that we can differentiate two approaches, which together elucidate the following seven important components to the hoping phenomenon: internal and external sources of hope, the social and individual experience of hope, internal and external effects, and the object of hope. Each of these components in turn covers several themes, subthemes and examples. This classification matrix can be used to increase the awareness of the broader meaning of hope across scientific disciplines and perhaps even more importantly, the awareness of how people experience hope in their daily lives. Not all components will be (equally) important in all inquiries into hope; however, someone interested in the topic will understand the parts better when being aware of the whole. Moreover, this overview will hopefully support and ease collaboration as well as comparisons between and within different disciplines. As such, it can be used to amplify their value for understanding and tackling practical societal issues.

An important implication of these results lies in the way hope is measured in applied and scientific research. Common instruments, especially from the field of psychology, for example, make no mention of the social and societal context in which hope arises or the object to which it ascribes, while this context might be vitally important for understanding what hope means to people. When measuring hope or developing instruments to measure it, researchers could be well-advised to take note of the broader understanding of the topic, to prevent that important characteristics might be overlooked. As such, future research might also find correlations between hope and other states or circumstances which were hitherto overlooked. Similarly, when practitioners use hope to further a social agenda or achieve social change, for example in the case of sustainability, wellbeing or a political goal, it is important to take note of the different ways in which hope affects individuals as well as society as a whole. This not only helps to appeal to hope more effectively, but also to prevent disappointment, disillusionment and possible resulting social unrest.

Future research could further these insights by investigating to what degree the different characteristics of hope play a role in specific contexts, cultures and groups. Also, it could be worthwhile to use phenomenographic methods to study the meaning of hope using different search engines or in more specific bodies of literature, or in regard to a specific topic of scientific discipline. The aim of this study was to offer an interdisciplinary overview of different perspectives of hope across ten different scientific disciplines, and was therefore not exhaustive nor focused in depth on different perspectives within disciplines. Yet, future research could focus more extensively on different perspectives within disciplines. Lastly, these insights could be used to develop more comprehensive and valid instruments covering more or even all the domains of hope mentioned here.

Although we have tried to be as thorough, concise and inclusive as possible, there are several limitations to this study. First, and most importantly, creating a classification matrix to reflect an increasingly vast and complex body of literature necessarily requires simplification and some degree of subjectivity. This classification is by no means the only possible way to portray how different characteristics of hope are related. However, the aim of this study was not to definitively state what hope is but to offer a comprehensive but clear overview of which characteristics are ascribed to the concept by different people and how these perspectives are related. This overview might change over time and with progressive insights, yet it hopefully offers one step towards a fuller and more integrated understanding of hope.

There are also some methodological issues that should be taken into consideration. For example, in collecting the sources for this study, we have tried to systematically select the most relevant works; however, in the process, we had to rely both on the previously determined categories of, for example, Web of Science, as well as on our personal evaluation of these works. Moreover, by using only one search engine, it is possible that our data selection was not exhaustive with regards to all relevant literature on the topic of hope within certain disciplines. However, it should be kept in mind that in our selection, we did not aim to be exhaustive but to be sufficiently representative of the current literature on hope and to offer a sufficient amount of diversity. Considering that we have included 66 works from ten different disciplines, we conclude that the variety of included works is comprehensive. Moreover, in analysing the texts and subsequent themes, some degree of subjective interpretation was inevitable. We have tried to increase the reliability of this study through triangulation, i.e., by combining multiple observers and methods. Last, by only including academic articles, we might have missed theories that have been discussed only in books as well as lay-people’s experiences of hope. However, since many of the included articles contain reviews of existing literature, including books and studies on people’s experiences of hope, we still consider these perspectives.

All in all, it is a tricky business to try to give a clear and structured overview of something as complex, elusive and human as hope. Nonetheless, the academic and societal value of understanding one of the most powerful incentives of human behaviour is simply too large to forego an attempt at a better understanding.

Moreover, in recent years, Christian theologists have highlighted hope as a possible force for social transformation and justice, stressing that solely hoping for a place in heaven is no virtue (Ludema, Wilmot & Srivastva, 1997; Nullens et al., 2016 ).

It is important to note that this concerns a hoper’s perception of reality, rather than reality per se. We can certainly hope for something we think is possible, until we discover that actually, it isn’t (Bloeser & Stahl, 2017 ).

See for example Moustakas ( 1994 ) or Giorgi & Giorgi ( 2003 ).

The full PRISMA protocol for systematic reviews is available upon request from the first author.

These sources were collected in December 2017. The complete search string can be found in the PRISMA protocol, which is available upon request from the first author.

These more general fields were comprised of several more specific categories. The complete overview of used sources is available upon request from the first author.

The high number of documents is due to the fact that if the least-cited article of the twenty was cited as often as the subsequent, article, then all articles with the same number of citations were selected.

The oldest source at this point was published in 1993 and the most recent in 2017.

A full list of the used articles can be found in “Appendix 1”.

All coding themes are available upon request from the first author.

“Appendix 2”, for example, contains an overview of the relative commonality of 24 initial themes in the different scientific disciplines discussed in this paper.

Perhaps not surprisingly, these descriptions have much overlap with the standard account of hope, i.e. hope as desire for an uncertain goal.

It is important to note that desire is not the same as the object of hope; the former is the experience of wanting, while the latter the thing that we desire and exists in the outside world. The object of hope will be discussed in more detail in paragraph 4.4.

Since hope depends on a subjective understanding of reality, it could also comprise what is deemed unattainable by others (Benzein, 2001; Pechenino, 2015).

That is, hoping for good weather during a picnic, to obtain a diploma, to recover from illness, or that a violent societal conflict will end, are very dissimilar experiences because they score quite differently on the components that make up hope.

In this article, we refer to this category as either internal, individual or personal. Although these terms have slightly different connotations, we use them to refer to the same category.

Similarly, in this article, we refer to this category as external, social or shared hope.

Although the experience of hope itself entails desire (as will be discussed in more detail in paragraph 4.3.1), we differentiate between the feeling of desire and the object of that desire as something that can be analysed by itself.

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Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organisation, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgermeester Oudlaan 50, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Emma Pleeging

Erasmus School of Health Policy and Management and Department of Applied Economics, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Job van Exel

Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organisation and Department of Applied Economics, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Martijn Burger

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Correspondence to Emma Pleeging .

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Appendix 1: Articles Used in Phenomenographic Analyses

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Pleeging, E., van Exel, J. & Burger, M. Characterizing Hope: An Interdisciplinary Overview of the Characteristics of Hope. Applied Research Quality Life 17 , 1681–1723 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-021-09967-x

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187 Hope Essay Topics: Ideas for Definition Essays, Literature Papers & More

Hope is a topic that has been discussed throughout philosophy’s history and in all Western philosophical traditions. It plays a vital role in every aspect of human life, such as religion, politics, and relationships. Hope also enables people to handle events with a mindset encouraging them to look ahead enthusiastically and positively.

In this article, our expert team has collected creative and catchy hope titles for essays that will come in handy!

• 🔝 Top 10 Hope Essays Topics

✍️ Hope Essay Prompts

• 🔤 Definition Essay on Hope
• 🙏 Essay on Hope and Faith

📚 Hope Essay Topics for Papers on Literature

🕊️ more great titles about hope, 📝 essay on hope: outline, 🔗 references, 🔝 top 10 hope essay topics.

• The philosophy of hope.
• The impact of hope on society.
• Why is the concept of hope important?
• Hope from a psychological perspective.
• Why do hope and anxiety accompany each other?
• Hope in Kant’s studies.
• The cross as a symbol of hope.
• Hope: personal experience.
• How not to lose hope?
• Example of hope in literature.

Have you ever felt a lack of inspiration when writing a school or college essay about hope? Not this time! We have prepared creative essay prompts that will aid you in receiving the highest grades!

Is Hope a Blessing or a Curse: Essay Prompt

The Greeks considered hope the most harmful of all evils because it hindered people from accepting their fate. In addition, hope is concerned with what has not yet occurred. So, it is natural that the higher our hopes for the future, the greater our disappointment when they are unmet.

On the other hand, research finds that people are more likely to accomplish their goals when they have hope. In your essay, you can provide the advantages and disadvantages of having hope, analyze them, and come to a conclusion.

Prompt for Essay about Faith, Hope, and Love

Faith, hope, and love are central to Christianity. Some Christian churches consider them theological virtues , each reflecting principles that define humanity’s relationship with God. In your essay about faith, hope, and love, you can focus on the following aspects:

• The role of these 3 virtues in religion.
• Importance of faith, hope, and love in everyday life.
• The example of faith, hope, and love from your experience, a film, or a book.
• Key verses about these virtues in the Bible.

What Gives You Hope for the Future: Essay Prompt

Hope might be among the most challenging things to find in terrible circumstances, but one must cling to it when things get bad. Being hopeful means believing in a better tomorrow, even if today everything goes wrong.

If you need help determining what gives you hope for the future, consider these tips:

• Think about the ups and downs that you have experienced.
• Try to find things that make you happy and inspired.
• Create a list of items you are thankful for and explain why.
• Look for some stories of hopeful people or ask friends to share their experiences.

Why Is Hope Important: Essay Prompt

Hope is one of the most powerful emotions since it urges people to keep going regardless of what happens in their lives. It also provides motivation to pursue goals, no matter how difficult or unattainable they seem, and fosters a positive attitude toward daily issues.

To highlight the importance of hope, find the answers to the following questions:

• How does hope help people overcome difficulties?
• Why is hope one of the greatest motivators?
• What is the impact of hope on mental health?
• Why is hope a strength and protective factor?

🔤 Definition Essay on Hope: Topic Ideas

A definition essay aims to thoroughly explain a specific concept. If you’re looking for ideas for your definition essay on hope, here are some topics to consider:

• What is the definition of hope in psychology?
• The essence of hope in Christianity .
• Hope in Hinduism as a concept of desire and wish.
• The focus of hope on economic and social empowerment in culture.
• What does the term hope mean in Judaism ?
• Hope in literature as a motivating force for change in the plot.
• How can hope be defined in the healthcare industry?
• Hope as the perceived capability to derive pathways to desired goals.
• How did ancient people define hope?
• Barack Obama’s psychology of hope: definition and peculiarities.
• The emotional competency of hope in the modern world.
• How do different cultures define and value the concept of hope?
• The role of hope in art: from ancient to modern times.
• The interpretation and explanation of hope by different philosophical currents .
• How is the concept of hope reflected in the works of different eras and genres?
• The impact of AI technology on the perception and expression of hope.
• Hope in the educational process: features.
• How has the understanding of hope changed over history?
• The relationship between the concept of hope and a general sense of happiness .
• Hope in religious beliefs and its manifestations in believers’ behaviors.

🙏 Essay on Hope and Faith: Interesting Topics

Faith and hope are closely interrelated concepts. If you need to write an essay on hope and faith, check out our writing ideas:

• The link between faith and hope in psychiatry.
• Three Faiths: Buddhism, Shintoism, and Bahai Religion .
• How do faith and hope help people to deal with uncertainty?
• The influence of hope and faith on mental health.
• Hope and faith as a foundation for religious practice and rituals .
• Health Care Provider and Faith Diversity .
• What is the difference between faith and hope?
• The role of hope and faith in the healing process .
• Hope and faith as a source of moral values.
• Christian Faith and Psychology: Allies Model .
• How does faith nurture and sustain hope?
• The nature of faith and hope in different cultures .
• European and Greek Heritage and Health Beliefs .
• Hope and faith from a philosophical perspective.
• The influence of hope and faith on the decision-making process.
• How do religious communities promote hope and faith?
• Religious Beliefs and Political Decisions .
• Religious hope and faith in the context of a personal tragedy.
• Hope and faith: the role in driving social change.
• Social Influence and Its Effects on People’s Beliefs and Behavior .
• The role of hope and faith in overcoming depression and anxiety disorders.
• What do hope and faith have in common?
• Political Beliefs in Changing Leadership .
• The thin line between hope and faith in oncology.
• Religious hope and faith as a source of the meaning of life.
• How Beliefs Can Shape a Person’s Reality .
• Why is hope so important to our faith?
• The evolution of faith and hope in human life.

Bible Study Questions on Hope

• Why, according to the Bible , hope is not a fleeting feeling?
• What messages of hope are present in the Book of Hebrews?
• Marriage and the Family: The Biblical Ideal & Modern Practice .
• What does the Book of Romans say about hope?
• How does the Psalmist convey hope in the face of adversity and uncertainty?
• What role does hope play in the teachings of Proverbs?
• Similarities in Family Values: The Aeneid and the Bible .
• How does the Bible teach us to be confident in our hope?
• What is the connection between hope and repentance in the Book of Lamentations?
• Why does true hope come as a gift by trusting God ?
• Relation Between God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit .
• Which stories from the Bible can help us learn more about hope?
• How does the book of Psalms use poetic language to express feelings of hope?
• The Nature of God, Humanity, Jesus, and Salvation .
• What role does hope play in the teachings of Jesus?
• How does the concept of hope relate to the idea of forgiveness in the Bible?
• How does Noah’s story with the flood illustrate the notion of hope?
• Several Theological Perspectives in the Understanding of the Bible, Its Interpretation and Issues .
• What lessons about hope may be derived from the Israelites’ experiences in the desert?
• How does the Book of Revelation present a vision of ultimate hope?

Are you searching for hope essay titles in literature ? In the sections below, you’ll find topics about this theme in the poem “Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers and other literary works.

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers Essay: Topic Ideas

• “Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers as a hymn of praise to hope.
• The power of hope as a key idea in the poem.
• “Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers: critical features of the poetic tone.
• The metaphor of hope in Emily Dickinson’s poem .
• Hope as a feathered creature in the poem.
• The concept of hope in “Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers.
• Why does Dickinson represent hope in her poem as a living thing?
• The symbolism of feathers in the poem “Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers.
• The abstract form of hope by Dickinson: the use of imagery and figurative language .
• Soul as a hope’s home in”Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers.
• How does Dickinson describe the paradoxical nature of hope in her poem?
• The use of poetic devices in “Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers.
• The impact of Dickinson’s poem on readers’ perceptions of hope.
• Dickinson’s “Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers: comparison of hope and despair.
• The peculiarities of “Hope” Is the Thing with Feathers title.

Hope Theme in Literature: More Essay Titles

• The Diary of Anne Frank: how hope saved lives during the Holocaust.
• The theme of hope in Louis’s journey in Hillenbrand’s Unbroken .
• The power of hope in the face of difficulty in A Raisin in the Sun.
• How does the author convey the idea of hope in Jane Eyre?
• Orwell’s 1984: The theme of lost hope for the future.
• Disillusionment of hope in The Great Gatsby .
• “Hope” by Emily Bronte as a poetic interpretation of hope.
• The American Dream in the Play “Death of a Salesman.”
• The nature of hope in One Hundred Years of Solitude.
• Night by Elie Wiesel : the concept of hope as a lifeline.
• How is the theme of hope highlighted in Life of Pi?
• Hemingway’s works and their connection with hope in the face of adversity.
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: the hope for justice and equality.
• The value of hope and humanity in All Quiet on the Western Front.
• Romeo and Juliet: hope’s vulnerability in a world of quarreling families.
• How does The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry reveal the various perspectives of hope?
• The impact of hope on humanity’s future.
• How does hope help people cope with mental and physical disorders?
• Personal Beliefs. Thought Control .
• Loss of hope: practical methods and strategies to stay motivated.
• The role of hope in students’ academic achievement .
• Hope as a source of energy and a positive mindset.
• The impact of hope on creativity in art and literature.
• Restoring Hope Counselling Home for Youth .
• How can hope assist in raising children?
• Hope as an instrument of adaptation to changes in modern society.
• Emotional regulation through hope: strategies and effectiveness.
• Supernaturalism: The Existence of God and the Meaning of a Human Life .
• How does hope aid in social progress and prosperity?
• The efficiency of hope in goal achievement.
• The Five Pillars of Islam and Its Major Teachings .
• How do people stay hopeful in the face of uncertainty?
• The influence of hope in business and entrepreneurship.
• Hope as a powerful motivator in conflict resolution .
• The relationship between hope and stress management.
• The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ .
• Hope and its influence on the development of emotional intelligence.
• How does hope affect the ethical issues of technological development ?
• The value of hope in the maintenance of positive family relations.
• The role of hope in sports achievements and overcoming difficulties.
• Positive Reinforcement Concepts Discussion .
• Hope as a factor in maintaining environmental awareness and responsibility.
• Hope and its impact on adaptation to technological innovations.
• Reason and Religious Belief. An Introduction to The Philosophy of Religion’ by M. Peterson .
• The influence of hope on the formation and maintenance of healthy habits.
• Hope as a source of recovery in medical practices.
• Positive Self-Talk and Its Impact on Athletes .
• The role of hope in the creation of a positive working environment.
• The influence of hope on the development of professional reputation and success .
• How do we use hope for financial stability?
• Argumentative Essay: I Have a Good Life .
• The relationship between hope and the ability to creatively solve problems.
• What role does hope play in the social integration of migrants and refugees ?
• The use of hope as a driving force in the formation of psychological stability.
• Managing Self-Defeating Thoughts .
• How does hope drive effective leadership and teamwork?

Hopes and Dreams Essay: Topic Ideas

• The economy of dreams: hope in global capitalism and its critiques.
• How did COVID-19 impact Australians’ hopes and dreams?
• The impact of drug addiction on people’s ability to hope and dream.
• American Dream and its Drawbacks .
• Hopes and dreams: common and distinctive qualities.
• The contribution of hopes and dreams to a sense of purpose.
• Sociology of Religion: Purpose and Concept .
• The efficiency of music in conveying emotions related to hopes and dreams.
• How do different cultures perceive and prioritize hopes and dreams?
• I Have a Dream Speech by Martin Luther King .
• The role of hope and dream in classical literature.
• The psychological side of unfulfilled dreams and hopes.
• How do hopes and dreams change across various generations?
• The use of realism and idealism in pursuing hopes and dreams.
• How can hope and dreams help to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder ?
• The opportunities and obstacles teenagers face in pursuing their dreams and hopes.
• History: In Search of the American Dream .
• Childhood dreams and hopes and the development of adult identity.
• How do social media shape individuals’ hopes and dreams?

Ideas for an Essay on Youth Is Hope

• The pressure of high hopes for young people in the 21st century.
• How do role models aid in instilling hope in young individuals?
• Youth Involvement in Political Processes .
• Young people’s political activism as a source of public hope.
• The youth as a driving force of any country or culture.
• Impact of Information Technology on Youth Development .
• The role of youth in breaking stereotypes and fostering hope.
• Youth and international relations : hope for peace in the world.
• The potential of young political leaders to justify the hopes of society.
• Educational Program for Young Nurses .
• Youth and gender equality: hope for a future without discrimination.
• The role of young educators in creating a hopeful future for the next generation.
• Youth as the backbone of society and hope for a better life.
• Young Adulthood and Millennial Leadership.
• How does technological progress inspire youth to be more hopeful?
• Environmental activism of young people: creating hope for a sustainable future.
• Youth as hope for creating solidarity and respect in society .
• Is it justified to place high hopes on the youth?
• Youth and inclusiveness: hope for the future of equal opportunities.

Wondering how to structure your essay about hope? Leave it to us! Here is a perfect outline of a hope essay for students with examples!

Hope Essay Introduction

The introduction gives your reader a clear picture of what your essay will address. It should include some background information on your problem and proposed solution.

Take these steps to create a perfect introduction:

• Start with an attention-grabbing hook .
• Provide some background information.
• Narrow the scope of your discussion.
• Identify your position.
• Outline the framework of your essay.

Thesis Statement about Hope

A thesis statement is a short sentence that introduces your paper’s argument to the reader. Here’s how to write it:

• Collect the evidence to back up your argument.
• Think of the significance of the facts you have found.
• Formulate your stance on the issue in one sentence.
• Make adjustments as needed.

The thesis statement is usually the last sentence of your introduction. Look at an example of how it might look:

Although it is impossible to stop yourself from hoping, it can become problematic when that hope turns into a delusion.

Essay about Hope: Body Paragraphs

The essay’s body is where you thoroughly explore your point of view. Each body paragraph should have one main idea or argument supported by examples and evidence. The structure of your body paragraph should look the following way:

• Topic sentence.
• Supporting evidence.
• The link to the next paragraph.

Check out an example of a body paragraph containing all these elements:

[Topic sentence] Hope is one of the most significant and strong feelings that a person can experience. [Supporting evidence] It propels us ahead in life, gives us hope for the future, and generally helps us feel better about ourselves and our lives. Furthermore, hope enables us to continue living despite the difficulties we face in life. [Transition] Yet, there can be too much of a good thing, as overreliance on hope can leave one disappointed and defeated.

Essays on Hope: Conclusion

A conclusion brings together the essential concepts covered in the essay’s body. It includes 4 main components:

• Rephrased thesis statement.
• Summary of key arguments.
• The broader significance of the topic
• Prediction, recommendations, or call to action.

Here’s how a rephrased thesis might look:

To sum up, it is acceptable to spend some time in hope but not to live in it. Instead, people must live in reality, which is the only way to achieve results.

We hope that our creative and catchy hope titles for essays have been inspirational for you! Besides, you can use our free online topic generator for more ideas!

• Hope | The Church of Jesis Christ
• Hope | Desiring God
• Hope: Why It Matters | Harvard Health Publishing
• How Hope Can Keep You Happier and Healthier | Greater Good Magazine
• What is Hope and Why Is It So Crucial to Our Faith? | Bible Study Tools
• Philosophy of Hope | Springer Link
• Six Top Tips for Writing a Great Essay | The University of Melbourne
• Essay Writing | Purdue Online Writing Lab

333 Football Research Topics & Essay Titles

169 the lottery essay topics & questions for analysis and argumentative papers.

Never Stop Learning

Essay On Hope – 1000 Words Essay

The word “hope” is a word that has so many different meanings to so many different people. This is because we all have different definitions and thoughts on what hope means to us. Hope can be defined as something that gives you the belief or desire that a specific thing will happen or exist in the future; a feeling of expectation and desire for something desired but not present; an object of hope, especially one characterized by immortality. One such example would be having hope for the survival of life on earth.

Another example would be having hope for a certain person or group’s success, such as hoping your basketball team wins the game.

For myself, I think that hope is defined as something that will happen in the future. With this definition, I would say that I have hope for the future of our world and society, such as hoping there will be no war or fighting among groups of people anymore. Another hopeful subject would be hoping that there will be no major catastrophes and therefore allowing us to continue to live on in peace and harmony. For me personally, my definition of hope is something that never dies no matter what may happen in life. I think this is a good way to live, even if your hopes aren’t fulfilled, at least you had hope for them and they will always be there. If you are someone who does not have hope for the future of humanity or something else then that’s ok, maybe you can find hope in the little things in life like having fun with a friend or family member.

I believe that anyone can have hope for anything no matter what it may be. Hope isn’t something that allows you to feel a certain way about life all the time, but it’s a frame of mind that gives us reason to keep going despite all odds against us. Hope is the strongest emotion because it is something you can’t feel unless you have hope.

Hope is one of the most important and powerful emotions that humans experience. Hope brings us forward in life, provides hope for the future, and makes us all feel better about ourselves and our lives. Without hope, we may as well give up on life due to the fact that we will never regain what has been lost or lost again. Hope is what gives meaning to life, it allows us to get an understanding of things we may not have before, and most importantly it allows us to continue living on despite everything we go through in life. Most would agree that without trust there would be no hope.

For me, hope is something that you can’t feel unless there is some kind it perception to it. I believe that hope is a state of mind that allows people to keep going in life and achieve things they would never have thought possible. Hope allows us to overcome obstacles and fears placed before us because we have the belief or the desire that this will end up well in the future. Our world would be much different if mankind had more hope within them, even though I think every person has their own idea of what hope is, there are some general guidelines that everyone could agree with if you asked them what they thought “hope” was.

I think hope is a very big thing to have in life and it is something that can make you feel a certain way or keep you going when things are tough. Hope is an emotion that people should feel because without any hope we would probably just give up, but with hope, we can keep on living and striving for what we want. There are many different ways people look at hope and there are some very passionate beliefs about this emotion as well. I think most agree however that without hope there would be no one who would fight for anything or anything anyone else would do, so it’s only natural that most believe everyone has to have some kind of hope in life.

Hope is one of the most powerful emotions to ever be experienced in life, it motivates and encourages us to keep going no matter what may happen in our lives. Hope gives you the inspiration to achieve your goals no matter how hard or impossible they may seem. People believe that without hope there would be no motivation to do anything, but with hope as a motivation, you can accomplish many things that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Without any hope, we might as well give up on life since we will never achieve what we want and just live for eternity torturing ourselves with negative thoughts about our lives and our current situation. Hope has the ability to get us through anything we go through in life. Hope gives us a reason to keep living and fighting against all odds, and most importantly it makes us believe that whatever we do, will eventually happen no matter what. Hope is something that comes with the perception of things that you can’t feel unless you have it for yourself.

Hope gives us the ability to fight against whatever life throws at us in order to continue living and moving forward with our lives. Without hope, I do not think we would be able to do anything at all, because it would make us feel like giving up on everything without even trying. If people did not have any kind of hope then they would probably just give up on life due to their situation making them unhappy and angry.

Always being hopeful and believing in our lives is the most important thing we can do no matter what we go through in life.

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”

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Written by Wicky

Hello, My name is Angel Wicky, I'm from Bangalore (India). I am a teacher & I love teaching. Teaching is the best job in the world. Education is the basic and essential part of any human being and teachers are the base of any education system. I'm really happy to be a part of it.

You can reach me via e-mail [email protected]

Regards Wicky

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Essay About Money – 2000 Words Essay

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Protest and persist: why giving up hope is not an option

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L ast month, Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden had a public conversation about democracy, transparency, whistleblowing and more. In the course of it, Snowden – who was of course Skyping in from Moscow – said that without Ellsberg’s example he would not have done what he did to expose the extent to which the NSA was spying on millions of ordinary people. It was an extraordinary declaration. It meant that the consequences of Ellsberg’s release of the top-secret Pentagon Papers in 1971 were not limited to the impact on a presidency and a war in the 1970s. The consequences were not limited to people alive at that moment. His act was to have an impact on people decades later – Snowden was born 12 years after Ellsberg risked his future for the sake of his principles. Actions often ripple far beyond their immediate objective, and remembering this is reason to live by principle and act in hope that what you do matters, even when results are unlikely to be immediate or obvious.

The most important effects are often the most indirect. I sometimes wonder when I’m at a mass march like the Women’s March a month ago whether the reason it matters is because some unknown young person is going to find her purpose in life that will only be evident to the rest of us when she changes the world in 20 years, when she becomes a great liberator.

I began talking about hope in 2003, in the bleak days after the war in Iraq was launched. Fourteen years later, I use the term hope because it navigates a way forward between the false certainties of optimism and of pessimism, and the complacency or passivity that goes with both. Optimism assumes that all will go well without our effort; pessimism assumes it’s all irredeemable; both let us stay home and do nothing. Hope for me has meant a sense that the future is unpredictable, and that we don’t actually know what will happen, but know we may be able write it ourselves.

Hope is a belief that what we do might matter, an understanding that the future is not yet written. It’s informed, astute open-mindedness about what can happen and what role we may play in it. Hope looks forward, but it draws its energies from the past, from knowing histories, including our victories, and their complexities and imperfections. It means not being the perfect that is the enemy of the good, not snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, not assuming you know what will happen when the future is unwritten, and part of what happens is up to us.

We are complex creatures. Hope and anguish can coexist within us and in our movements and analyses. There’s a scene in the new movie about James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro, in which Robert Kennedy predicts, in 1968, that in 40 years there will be a black president. It’s an astonishing prophecy since four decades later Barack Obama wins the presidential election, but Baldwin jeers at it because the way Kennedy has presented it does not acknowledge that even the most magnificent pie in the sky might comfort white people who don’t like racism but doesn’t wash away the pain and indignation of black people suffering that racism in the here and now. Patrisse Cullors, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter, early on described the movement’s mission as “rooted in grief and rage but pointed towards vision and dreams”. The vision of a better future doesn’t have to deny the crimes and sufferings of the present; it matters because of that horror.

I have been moved and thrilled and amazed by the strength, breadth, depth and generosity of the resistance to the Trump administration and its agenda. I did not anticipate anything so bold, so pervasive, something that would include state governments, many government employees from governors and mayors to workers in many federal departments, small towns in red states, new organizations like the 6,000 chapters of Indivisible reportedly formed since the election, new and fortified immigrant-rights groups, religious groups, one of the biggest demonstrations in American history with the Women’s March on 21 January, and so much more.

I’ve also been worried about whether it will endure. Newcomers often think that results are either immediate or they’re nonexistent. That if you don’t succeed straight away, you failed. Such a framework makes many give up and go back home when the momentum is building and victories are within reach. This is a dangerous mistake I’ve seen over and over. What follows is the defense of a complex calculus of change, instead of the simple arithmetic of short-term cause and effect.

There’s a bookstore I love in Manhattan, the Housing Works bookshop, which I’ve gone to for years for a bite to eat and a superb selection of used books. Last October my friend Gavin Browning, who works at Columbia University but volunteers with Housing Works, reminded me what the name means. Housing Works is a spinoff of Act Up, the Aids Coalition to Unleash Power, founded at the height of the Aids crisis, to push for access to experimental drugs, bring awareness to the direness of the epidemic, and not go gentle into that bad night of premature death.

What did Act Up do? The group of furious, fierce activists, many of them dangerously ill and dying, changed how we think about Aids. They pushed to speed up drug trials, deal with the many symptoms and complications of Aids together, pushed on policy, education, outreach, funding. They taught people with Aids and their allies in other countries how to fight the drug companies for affordable access to what they needed. And win.

Browning recently wrote: “At the start of the 1990s, New York City had less than 350 units of housing set aside for an estimated 13,000 homeless individuals living with HIV/Aids. In response, four members of the Act Up housing committee founded Housing Works in 1990.” They still quietly provide a broad array of services, including housing, to HIV-positive people 27 years later. All I saw was a bookstore; I missed a lot. Act Up’s work is not over, in any sense.

For many groups, movements and uprisings, there are spinoffs, daughters, domino effects, chain reactions, new models and examples and templates and toolboxes that emerge from the experiments, and every round of activism is an experiment whose results can be applied to other situations. To be hopeful, we need not only to embrace uncertainty but to be willing to know that the consequences may be immeasurable, may still be unfolding, may be as indirect as poor people on other continents getting access to medicine because activists in the USA stood up and refused to accept things as they were. Think of hope as a banner woven from those gossamer threads, from a sense of the interconnectedness of all things, of the lasting effect of the best actions, not only the worst. Of an indivisible world in which everything matters.

An old woman said at the outset of Occupy Wall Street “we’re fighting for a society in which everyone is important”, the most beautifully concise summary of what a compassionately radical, deeply democratic movement might aim to do. Occupy Wall Street was mocked and described as chaotic and ineffectual in its first weeks, and then when it spread nationwide and beyond, as failing or failed, by pundits who had simple metrics of what success should look like. The original occupation in lower Manhattan was broken up in November 2011, but many of the encampments inspired by it lasted far longer.

Similarly, I think it’s a mistake to regard the gathering of tribes and activists at Standing Rock, North Dakota, as something we can measure by whether or not it defeats a pipeline. You could go past that to note that merely delaying completion beyond 1 January cost the investors a fortune, and that the tremendous movement that has generated widespread divestment and a lot of scrutiny of hitherto invisible corporations and environmental destruction makes building pipelines look like a riskier, potentially less profitable business.

Standing Rock was vaster than these practical things. At its height it was almost certainly the biggest political gathering of Native North Americans ever seen, said to be the first time all seven bands of the Lakota had come together since they defeated Custer at Little Bighorn in 1876, one that made an often-invisible tribe visible around the world. What unfolded there seemed as though it might not undo one pipeline but write a radical new chapter to a history of more than 500 years of colonial brutality, centuries of loss, dehumanization and dispossession. Thousands of veterans came to defend the encampment and help prevent the pipeline. In one momentous ceremony, many of the former soldiers knelt down to apologize and ask forgiveness for the US army’s long role in oppressing Native Americans. Like the Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island at the end of the 1960s, Standing Rock has been a catalyst for a sense of power, pride, destiny. It is an affirmation of solidarity and interconnection, an education for people who didn’t know much about native rights and wrongs, an affirmation for Native people who often remember history in passionate detail. It is a confirmation of the deep ties between the climate movement and indigenous rights that has played a huge role in stopping pipelines in and from Canada. It has inspired and informed young people who may have half a century or more of good work yet to do. It has been a beacon whose meaning stretches beyond that time and place.

To know history is to be able to see beyond the present, to remember the past gives you capacity to look forward as well, it’s to see that everything changes and the most dramatic changes are often the most unforeseen. I want to go into one part of our history at greater length to explore these questions about consequences that go beyond simple cause and effect.

T he 1970s anti-nuclear movement was a potent force in its time, now seldom remembered, though its influence is still with us. In her important new book Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism, LA Kauffman reports that the first significant action against nuclear power, in 1976, was inspired by an extraordinary protest the previous year in West Germany, which had forced the government to abandon plans to build a nuclear reactor. A group that called itself the Clamshell Alliance arose to oppose building a nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. Despite creative tactics, great movement building, and extensive media coverage against the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire, the activists did not stop the plant.

They did inspire a sister organization, the Abalone Alliance in central California, which used similar strategies to try to stop the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The groups protested against two particular nuclear power plants; those two plants opened anyway.

You can call that a failure, but Kauffman notes that it inspired people around the country to organize their own anti-nuclear groups, a movement that brought about the cancellation of more than 100 planned nuclear projects over several years and raised public awareness and changed public opinion about nuclear power. Then she gets into the really exciting part, writing that the Clamshell Alliance’s “most striking legacy was in consolidating and promoting what became the dominant model for large-scale direct-action organizing for the next 40 years. It was picked up by … the Pledge of Resistance, a nationwide network of groups organized against US policy in Central America” in the 1980s.

“Hundreds more employed it that fall in a civil disobedience action to protest the supreme court’s anti-gay Bowers vs Hardwick sodomy decision,” Kauffman continues. “The Aids activist group Act Up used a version of this model when it organized bold takeovers of the headquarters of the Food and Drug Administration in 1988 and the National Institutes of Health in 1990, to pressure both institution to take swifter action toward approving experimental Aids medication.” And on into the current millennium. But what were the strategies and organizing principles they catalyzed?

The short answer is non-violent direct action, externally, and consensus decision-making process, internally. The former has a history that reaches around the world, the latter that stretches back to the early history of European dissidents in North America. That is, non-violence is a strategy articulated by Mohandas Gandhi, first used by residents of Indian descent to protest against discrimination in South Africa on 11 September 1906. The young lawyer’s sense of possibility and power was expanded immediately afterward when he traveled to London to pursue his cause. Three days after he arrived, British women battling for the right to vote occupied the British parliament, and 11 were arrested, refused to pay their fines, and were sent to prison. They made a deep impression on Gandhi.

He wrote about them in a piece titled “Deeds Better than Words” quoting Jane Cobden, the sister of one of the arrestees, who said, “I shall never obey any law in the making of which I have had no hand; I will not accept the authority of the court executing those laws …” Gandhi declared: “Today the whole country is laughing at them, and they have only a few people on their side. But undaunted, these women work on steadfast in their cause. They are bound to succeed and gain the franchise …” And he saw that if they could win, so could the Indian citizens in British Africa fighting for their rights. In the same article (in 1906!) he prophesied: “When the time comes, India’s bonds will snap of themselves.” Ideas are contagious, emotions are contagious, hope is contagious, courage is contagious. When we embody those qualities, or their opposites, we convey them to others.

That is to say, British suffragists, who won limited access to the vote for women in 1918, full access in 1928, played a part in inspiring an Indian man who 20 years later led the liberation of the Asian subcontinent from British rule. He, in turn, inspired a black man in the American south to study his ideas and their application. After a 1959 pilgrimage to India to meet with Gandhi’s heirs, Martin Luther King wrote: “While the Montgomery boycott was going on, India’s Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of non-violent social change. We spoke of him often.” Those techniques, further developed by the civil rights movement, were taken up around the world, including in the struggle against apartheid at one end of the African continent and to the Arab spring at the other.

Participation in the civil rights movement of the early 1960s shaped many lives. One of them is John Lewis, one of the first Freedom Riders, a young leader of the lunch counter sit-ins, a victim of a brutal beating that broke his skull on the Selma march. Lewis was one of the boldest in questioning Trump’s legitimacy and he led dozens of other Democratic members of Congress in boycotting the inauguration. When the attack on Muslim refugees and immigrants began a week after Trump’s inauguration, he showed up at the Atlanta airport.

That’s a lot to take in. But let me put it this way. When those women were arrested in parliament, they were fighting for the right of British women to vote. They succeeded in liberating themselves. But they also passed along tactics, spirit and defiance. You can trace a lineage backward to the anti-slavery movement that inspired the American women’s suffrage movement, forward right up to John Lewis standing up for refugees and Muslims in the Atlanta airport this year. We are carried along by the heroines and heroes who came before and opened the doors of possibility and imagination.

My partner likes to quote a line of Michel Foucault: “People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.” You do what you can. What you’ve done may do more than you can imagine for generations to come. You plant a seed and a tree grows from it; will there be fruit, shade, habitat for birds, more seeds, a forest, wood to build a cradle or a house? You don’t know. A tree can live much longer than you. So will an idea, and sometimes the changes that result from accepting that new idea about what is true, right, just remake the world. You do what you can do; you do your best; what what you do does is not up to you.

T hat’s a way to remember the legacy of the external practice of non-violent civil disobedience used by the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s, as with the civil rights movement of the 1960s, which did so much to expand and refine the techniques.

As for the internal process: in Direct Action, Kauffman addresses the Clamshell Alliance’s influences, quoting a participant named Ynestra King who said: “Certain forms that had been learned from feminism were just naturally introduced into the situation and a certain ethos of respect, which was reinforced by the Quaker tradition.” Suki Rice and Elizabeth Boardman, early participants in the Clamshell Alliance, as Kauffman relates, were influenced by the Quakers, and they brought the Quaker practice of consensus decision-making to the new group: “The idea was to ensure that no one’s voice was silenced, that there was no division between leaders and followers.” The Quakers have been since the 17th century radical dissidents who opposed war, hierarchical structures and much else. An organizer named Joanne Sheehan said, “while non-violence training, doing actions in small groups, and agreeing to a set of non-violence guidelines were not new, it was new to blend them in combination with a commitment to consensus decision-making and a non-hierarchical structure.” They were making a way of operating and organizing that spread throughout the progressive activist world.

There are terrible stories about how diseases like Aids jump species and mutate. There are also ideas and tactics that jump communities and mutate, to our benefit. There is an evil term, collateral damage, for the people who die unintentionally: the civilians, non-participants, etc. Maybe what I am proposing here is an idea of collateral benefit.

What we call democracy is often a majority rule that leaves the minority, even 49.9% of the people – or more if it’s a three-way vote – out in the cold. Consensus leaves no one out. After Clamshell, it jumped into radical politics and reshaped them, making them more generously inclusive and egalitarian. And it’s been honed and refined and used by nearly every movement I’ve been a part of or witnessed, from the anti-nuclear actions at the Nevada test site in the 1980s and 1990s to the organization of the shutdown of the World Trade Organization in late 1999, a victory against neoliberalism that changed the fate of the world, to Occupy Wall Street in 2011 and after.

So what did the Clamshell Alliance achieve? Everything but its putative goal. Tools to change the world, over and over. There are crimes against humanity, crimes against nature, and other forms of destruction that we need to stop as rapidly as possible, and the endeavors to do so are under way. They are informed by these earlier activists, equipped with the tools they developed. But the efforts against these things can have a longer legacy, if we learn to recognize collateral benefits and indirect effects.

If you are a member of civil society, if you demonstrate and call your representatives and donate to human rights campaigns, you will see politicians and judges and the powerful take or be given credit for the changes you effected, sometimes after resisting and opposing them. You will have to believe in your own power and impact anyway. You will have to keep in mind that many of our greatest victories are what doesn’t happen: what isn’t built or destroyed, deregulated or legitimized, passed into law or tolerated in the culture. Things disappear because of our efforts and we forget they were there, which is a way to forget we tried and won.

Even losing can be part of the process: as the bills to abolish slavery in the British empire failed over and over again, the ideas behind them spread, until 27 years after the first bill was introduced, a version finally passed. You will have to remember that the media usually likes to tell simple, direct stories in which if a court rules or an elective body passes a law, that action reflects the actors’ own beneficence or insight or evolution. They will seldom go further to explore how that perspective was shaped by the nameless and unsung, by the people whose actions built up a new world or worldview the way that innumerable corals build a reef.

The only power adequate to stop the Trump administration is civil society, which is the great majority of us when we remember our power and come together. And even if we remember, even if we exert all the pressure we’re capable of, even if the administration collapses immediately, or the president resigns or is impeached or melts into a puddle of corruption, our work will only have begun.

That job begins with opposing the Trump administration but will not end until we have made deep systemic changes and recommitted ourselves, not just as a revolution, because revolutions don’t last, but as a civil society with values of equality, democracy, inclusion, full participation, a radical e pluribus unum plus compassion. As has often been noted, the Republican revolution that allowed them to take over so many state houses and take power far beyond their numbers came partly from corporate cash, but partly from the willingness to do the slow, plodding, patient work of building and maintaining power from the ground up and being in it for the long run. And partly from telling stories that, though often deeply distorting the facts and forces at play, were compelling. This work is always, first and last, storytelling work, or what some of my friends call “the battle of the story”. Building, remembering, retelling, celebrating our own stories is part of our work.

I want to see this glorious resistance have a long game, one that includes re-enfranchising the many millions, perhaps tens of millions of people of color, poor people, and students disenfranchised by many means: the Crosscheck program, voter ID laws that proceed from the falsehood that voter fraud is a serious problem that affects election outcomes, the laws taking voting rights in most states from those convicted of felonies. I am encouraged to see many idealistic activists bent on reforming the Democratic party, and a new level of participation inside and outside electoral politics. Reports say that the offices of elected officials are swamped with calls and emails as never before.

This will only matter if it’s sustained. To sustain it, people have to believe that the myriad small, incremental actions matter. That they matter even when the consequences aren’t immediate or obvious. They must remember that often when you fail at your immediate objective – to block a nominee or a pipeline or to pass a bill – that even then you may have changed the whole framework in ways that make broader change inevitable. You may change the story or the rules, give tools, templates or encouragement to future activists, and make it possible for those around you to persist in their efforts.

To believe it matters – well, we can’t see the future. We have the past. Which gives us patterns, models, parallels, principles and resources, and stories of heroism, brilliance, persistence, and the deep joy to be found in doing the work that matters. With those in our pockets, we can seize the possibilities and begin to make hopes into actualities.

March 13, 2017

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Essay on Hope | Meaning, Purpose, Importance of Hope In Life

Hope is the greatest source of survival and way towards achieving greater purpose and success in life. The following essay on hope focuses on meaning, purpose and importance of hope in our life. This short & long essay is quite helpful for children and students in their school exam preparation etc.

Essay on Hope | Meaning, Purpose, Importance of Hope in Life Essay For Students

Hope is an emotion that is characterized by strong desires for certain outcomes to happen.  Hope is an emotion that drives humans to achieve their goals. It provides the sense of purpose so they can work towards it. It is not only the desire for something good but determination to achieve something good even if you have to face many difficulties along the way.

This is also known as optimism, which enables you to set goals and achieve them.  Hope can vary from person to person. It can be intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. While intrinsic means that one gets hope by themselves, the latter means that others encourage someone to achieve their goal by providing external motivation such as money or fame

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Hope and optimism are often used in conjunction with each other, but they are not the same. Both involve having an optimistic mindset to achieve a certain goal, but hope is more of an emotion while optimism is more of a mindset. Hope involves wanting something to happen in the future with strong desire or determination.

It can drive people to achieve their goals and dreams, even through tough situations. Optimism, on the other hand, is a mindset that allows you to see positive outcomes in your situation rather than dwelling on the negative. Hope involves having a strong desire or determination to follow through with one’s goal or dream despite going through difficult times.

Importance of Hope in Life

Hope is a necessary in our lives because it gives us the desire to achieve something that we think will make us happy. It also provides the determination to complete tasks despite difficult conditions.

For instance, if you are sick and bedridden, without hope you wouldn’t want to do anything about your life; but with hope you would be motivated to get up and be productive. Hope also provides a greater reason to live life the way you want because it is a desire for things to happen rather than an acceptance of how things are going.

Many people would die if they lost hope in human decency and goodness, but those with hope would still try to make the world a better place no matter how small their efforts. Hope also helps people be sustained in their lives through tough times and this is important because humans need to grow stronger as they face various problems

Benefits of Hope in Life

There are several benefits that hope provides in life. Hope allows you to see the good around you and encourages many people to go after their goals, dreams, and aspirations.  Hope helps people have a greater desire to achieve something in life because they have a strong need to be happy. This gives them the internal motivation to do things that are necessary for their happiness.

Hope also makes people hopeful about their future which means they will be optimistic about what is to come. This encourages people to take risks and try out new things that may be necessary for their happiness.

People who are hopeless may decline to do anything because they think it would be useless. They can’t see any positive outcomes in their lives, which makes it hard to keep things up. Some people may also blame themselves for not doing anything to better their lives, which can cause depression or mental issues. Some even think that they don’t deserve to be happy or don’t have the right to pursue their dreams and aspirations, which can lead to many problems such as addictions and even death.

Hope is an important feeling to keep in life because it keeps us strong and ready for anything. Without hope, we would be victims to our lives and rather than looking forward to a better future we would be stuck in a rut.

Hope is a feeling that gives humans the desire to achieve their goals and dreams. It makes them see positive outcomes despite difficult circumstances, encourages people to take risks and follow their dreams, and keeps people strong and motivated.

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Hope is a necessity in everyone’s lives because it provides us with the strength to achieve our goals despite the challenges we face. It gives us the motivation to try harder and accomplish what we desire in life, which is something that everyone should have.

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Christopher Hope

• Non-Fiction
• Johannesburg, South Africa
• Atlantic Books
• Pan Macmillan Ltd
• Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd

Novelist Christopher Hope was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1944. He was educated at the universities of Witwatersrand and Natal and worked as a journalist before moving to London in 1975. He is a regular broadcaster and contributes articles and reviews to newspapers, magazines and journals. He has also written plays for both radio and television.

His poems were first published in Whitewashes (1971), but Hope's first significant publication was Cape Drives (1974), which won the Thomas Pringle Prize and a Cholmondeley Award. His published poetry also includes In the Country of the Black Pig (1981) and Englishmen (1985).

His first novel, A Separate Development (1981), was banned in South Africa. A rich, comic satire of the apartheid system, it won the David Higham Prize for Fiction. His other novels include Kruger's Alp (1984), which won the Whitbread Novel Award; The Hottentot Room (1986), set in a London drinking club, a home from home for South African exiles; and My Chocolate Redeemer (1989), the story of an unlikely friendship between a 15-year-old girl and an exiled dictator. More recent novels include Serenity House (1992), a black comedy set in an old people's home in London, shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction; Darkest England (1996), which subverts the colonial experience through African explorers visiting England; and Me, the Moon and Elvis Presley (1997), a satire set in the new South Africa. His most recent novels are The Garden of Bad Dreams (2008) and  Shooting Angels  (2011). 

Hope's non-fiction includes a volume of autobiography, White Boy Running (1988), a travel book, Moscow! Moscow! (1990), which won a PEN Award, and, most recently, Signs of the Heart: Love and Death in Languedoc (1999), about his home in the South of France.  Brothers Under the Skin: Travels in Tyranny (2003), is a biography of the Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe.

Critical perspective

Christopher hope was born in johannesburg, south africa in 1944..

Although he left South Africa, initially for the UK, in the 1970s, he has remained a commentator on events there, and the country and its changing politics continue to inform his extensive journalism and his fiction. Both in his journalistic essays and in his novels he is a witty and sophisticated critic of the pretensions and paranoia of authoritarian regimes, and with a certain darkly satirical humour he depicts the absurdities that are so frequently entangled with the horrors of repression. Hope gives matter of fact accounts of the grimly farcical world of the apartheid regime in South Africa, and of the uncertainties of the present situation there. In his accounts, the facts of an authoritarian regime and its after effects acquire an air of unreality that recalls the looking-glass world of Lewis Carroll. The skewed vision promoted by censorship and propaganda becomes ever more fantastic as rumours and conspiracy theories take the place of alternative perspectives.

In some of his later works, Hope brings his South African experience to bear on other situations both actual and fictional. He writes about post Cold War Russia in Moscow! Moscow! (1990), about the United Kingdom in Darkest England (1996), and about Languedoc in Signs of the Heart (1999). The strategies Hope employs for purposes of contemporary satire have more than once been compared to those of Jonathan Swift. His sardonic humour enables him to make accurate and unsettling observations on forms of madness, which in everyday life many people accept without question.

In his fictional accounts of South Africa Hope describes the combination of fact, myth and paranoia which an authoritarian regime often employs in justification of its oppressive authority. In the pseudo-allegorical fable Kruger's Alp (1984) Theodore Blanchaille, a renegade Catholic priest, sets off on a grim yet ludicrous quest for the legendary gold of President Kruger. Blanchaille's journey comes to represent the absurdity not only of the personality cult but also of other quasi-mystical ideologies. The narrative offers large parallels with the Divine Comedy and Don Quixote, but is more awkwardly and explicitly identified as an inverted and distorted imitation of The Pilgrim's Progress. This extravagant strategy contributes to the unreal and at times nightmarish atmosphere of the novel, but the reality Blanchaille ultimately finds at Kruger's Alp is more sinister and more incredible than any of the book's acknowledged fantasies.

Me, the Moon and Elvis Presley (1997) presents, in a series of snapshots from the years 1949 to 1995, parallel accounts of life in a small Karoo village after the triumph of the National Party under Malan and after the later events which the inhabitants of the village known as 'the Change'. These contrasting yet analogous phases of South African history are interpreted through the lives of an eclectic mix of personalities. A group of British Israelites claim descent from Abraham through the 'Queen of England'. A lawyer turned travelling salesman wears a white suit that takes on different semiotic associations in different parts of the novel. A young woman named Mimi is purchased on her first arrival for six bars of soap, but later re-appears under a new name to become Deputy Mayor. The eccentricity of these human characters is surpassed by that of a highly vocal and politically incorrect budgie. The 1990s in this book become a distorted mirror image of the 1950s. The arrival in 1956 of the 'trembling pelvis' of Elvis Presley is ascribed to the 'Commies', the Jews, and the Roman Catholic Church. It is even interpreted as an English plot to avenge the electoral defeat of 1948. In 1995 the village hold a karaoke homage to Elvis in which the Israelites' performance of a hymn to Yahweh is followed by an affirmative action Presley, a Gay Pride Presley and a choral Elvis from the a cappella group.

Hope is an acute observer of the follies and idiosyncrasies of other nations too. In Darkest England he describes a journey undertaken by the fictional San explorer David Mungo Booi on behalf of the Society for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of England. The text of this book is offered as Booi's notebooks, and its style parodies the phlegmatic and naively inquisitive manner of nineteenth century English explorers in Africa. Booi aims to find answers to fundamental questions about self-defining English myths: 'Did they really build Jerusalem in their green and pleasant land?', 'Why do they believe there will always be an England?'. Hope exploits the unusual viewpoint of his narrator to give plausibility to extravagant inventions and to satirise British systems and ideologies. He not only ridicules such institutions as Parliament, the mental hospitals and the gaols, but also undercuts the unquestioning confidence of the 'right-thinking' classes in their own earnestness.

Hope has an eye for the bizarre within the everyday in other situations also. It is not only in Britain that the surreal provides a paradoxically sane and stable presence. In Hope's accounts of his visits to Yugoslavia a large pink man with a weighing machine on the main pedestrian street of Belgrade is a constant and strangely reassuring presence through the years of nationalism and the disintegration of the country (The Guardian, June 6 2001). In Signs of the Heart , a travelogue set in Languedoc, the narrator encounters such eccentric figures as Armand the hunchback who keeps a hoard of 5000 glass chimneys, and Sophie who is taking a correspondence course in 'Things a Deity must do if She is to do Her job'.

The re-naming of towns, cities and streets has been standard practice in the re-creation of a number of countries and political systems. The imaginary Karoo village of Me, the Moon and Elvis Presley changes back and forth between Buckingham and Lutherburg depending on the political climate. Similarly in White Boy Running (1988), a factual chronicle of Hope's return to South Africa for the elections of 1987, we learn that McHattiesburg became Balfour after the South African War. Hope has a sharp eye for such alterations in signs and symbols. Colours, flags and graffiti are all invested with ironic significance. The slogans of South African elections range from 'Gay Whales against Apartheid' in 1987, to 'One Settler, One Prozac' in the 'new' South Africa. In Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia the Grand Hotel of Pristina loses the last two letters of its name, becoming the Grand Hot. As Hope points out, neither of these adjectives is justified.

Christopher Hope is a skilful creator of imaginative satire. His shrewd and often polemical writing compels his readers to look again at the shifting significance of the slightest detail. In both his fiction and his journalism Hope offers insights into the cruel absurdities of political oppression. In his caustic commentaries he underlines the importance of being able not only to criticise but also to puncture the pomposity of humourless systems and beliefs. Like many writers of South African origin, Hope brings his critical and imaginative powers to bear on major religious, political and cultural issues. His choice of subject matter affirms his belief that writers have an important role in public life; but the extravagances of his comic and satiric invention suggest that such a belief is often difficult to sustain.

Cora Lindsay, 2002

Bibliography

Author statement.

'Writing has always seemed to me to be a rather mischievous occupation. I write not to change the world but to undermine it, since the models on offer seem pretty dull most of the time. Much of life is odd and disorganised. Many people who pretend at being certain about things are either ingenuous or wicked. They are also often charlatans. One wants to record their utterances, wherever possible, as a warning to others. As a writer I was lucky enough to grow up in South Africa, a place where the lethal folly of what everyone assured me was "normal" life far outstripped even the most audacious of writers. It made for a wonderful training. It taught me about the sheer inventiveness of life. And it gave me a subject - the triumph of power and the terminal comedy of those who wield it.'

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Call for Papers: Narratives of Struggle and Hope: Ethnography, Education, and Democracy at a Crossroads

• May 14, 2024
• vol 70 issue 34

The University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education will host the 2025 Ethnography in Education Research Forum February 7-8, 2025. The topic of the conference is Narratives of Struggle and Hope: Ethnography, Education, and Democracy at a Crossroads. For the conference, the Ethnography in Education Research Forum invites scholars and researchers to submit their qualitative and ethnographic inquiries that interrogate the connection between democracy and education, particularly in uncertain or precarious times. The call for papers seeks to explore the nuanced ways in which educators and educational institutions, broadly defined, may serve as sites for democratic struggle, hope, or something in between.

The conference will discuss the politicized times we live in. The last decade has come to be marked by global crises, political divisions, and economic insecurity, and the approaching 2024 presidential election holds the potential to redress or exacerbate these tensions. As we anticipate the political landscape unfolding, a wide and growing array of issues pose challenges for educators, schools, families, and scholars as they seek to understand and navigate an evolving landscape.

Submissions are encouraged that delve into the multifaceted dimensions of uncertainty, revealing how complex human beings acquiesce, ignore, resist, or challenge their political worlds. Ethnographers, practitioners, students, and scholars are therefore invited to illuminate how university campuses, K-12 schools, and community spaces become dynamic arenas for the negotiation of democratic values, where societal uncertainties are woven into the daily experiences of students, educators, and administrators.

This call for papers goes out to scholars who aim to foster a rich dialogue on schools as (potentially) democratic spaces in uncertain times, challenging researchers to rethink and redefine the boundaries of their ethnographic practice to capture the essence of democratic education in the face of uncertainty.

Papers will be accepted through June 1, 2024. For more information, including submission guidelines, visit https://2025forum.dryfta.com .

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Hope for the Organization Kid

T wenty-three years ago, David Brooks published in The Atlantic a long essay based on interviews with Princeton undergraduates. He found the students busy : overscheduled, achievement-oriented models of meritocratic success. They were “extraordinarily bright, morally earnest, and incredibly industrious . . . responsible, safety-conscious, and mature.” Alluding to The Organization Man , William H. Whyte’s 1956 book about the new postwar class of corporate managers, Brooks dubbed the Princeton students “Organization Kids.”

The products of an upper-middle-class ethos, with parents who cared about “brain development,” scheduled “play dates,” and might have been too compliant about Ritalin prescriptions, this generation of elite students took for granted the goods of safety and stimulation. They were conditioned to be productive. Consulting firms and investment banks courted them as “Strategists, Quick Thinkers, Team Players, Achievers.”

With a touch of romanticism, Brooks lamented that “the code of the meritocrat” at Princeton in 2001 lacked the “moral gravity and . . . sense of duty” that characterized earlier generations. The old Princeton had subscribed to a “chivalric code” that emphasized “courage”; Ivy League organization kids were used to being protected. Still, Brooks clearly was not blaming them. “When it comes to character and virtue, these young people have been left on their own.” They had been formed by “adult institutions” that “no longer try to talk about character and virtue,” which had been replaced by the goals of security and success.

The brightest and most industrious young people, the future leaders of the nation, lacked basic conceptual resources, including a language for virtue and sin. These diligent workaholics were unable “to discuss what is good and true.” They could not describe “eternal life” or “what it would be like to be a saint.” They were not trying to be saints, nor is it even clear that they felt anything was missing from their lives. Brooks viewed the students as alienated, but they did not experience themselves that way. “‘Alienation’ is a word one almost never hears from them.” They were uninterested in, and incapable of, discussing what Brooks thought they were missing: the elements of a spiritual life.

Such students may still exist today, but dramatic shifts have occurred over the past two decades—the lifetime of current college students. Cultural signals indicate that spiritual malaise has become palpable and impossible to ignore. Students today, even privileged students, feel less secure, less confident, more socially dissatisfied. Their economic and ideological landscape is unstable. Anxiety, depression, and loneliness, which feature not at all in Brooks’s observations, are common on college campuses today.

A keen and influential contribution to popular sociology, Brooks’s essay was also one of the last glimpses of a pre–9/11 America. About ten years ago, my friend Mark Shiffman revisited Brooks’s essay and found that the dominant mood of college students in 2014 was not confidence but anxiety. In his essay for this magazine, he described students who lacked the economic and cultural security of Brooks’s organization kids. They might still be busy—overscheduled, double-majoring, and competing for internships—but not because they took for granted the path of meritocratic careerism. Students in 2014 were “majoring in fear.”

Another ten years, and another psychocultural shift is perceptible on college campuses. The meritocratic ethos comports awkwardly with the new doctrine that meritocracy has always been a myth. Even on elite campuses, students feel insecure and socially alienated. Ideologically and existentially, many find life in 2024 uncertain, unfair, even unjust. Various economic and political developments may have caused this tectonic shift. But one clear driver is technology: Since Brooks’s essay appeared, an entirely new environment of attention has emerged, occasioned by constant digital connectivity.

T he internet was still young in 2001, and smartphones didn’t exist. (Brooks’s only mention of cell phones is in reference to parents’ concern that a nanny might use one while driving.) Today’s college students do not remember life without smartphones; most have carried one since middle school. They have always depended on messaging apps for social interaction. If they have had voice conversations with remote friends, they have more likely done so through video game headsets than through their phones. Grade information has been presented to them constantly on digital course management systems. They have streamed silly videos and traded memes at will.

“Digital natives” who grew up with mobile connectivity, touch screens, and algorithmic social media are already tired of their elders declaring how revolutionary this technology is. Still, it is important for parents and teachers to recognize how much it has transformed the sociocultural landscape, largely by transforming the inner landscapes of young people.

The vice of acedia is always a risk for college students, but in 2001 it manifested itself mostly in restlessness, the disordered overactivity of the person who never stops to ask what is most important. By contrast, today’s digital natives are keenly aware of themselves as distracted. Their characteristic vice is curiositas , another daughter of acedia , but specifically a vice of wandering awareness, a disordering of attention. No wonder social media have opened up discussions of mental health, including by destigmatizing those discussions. Ask even the highest-performing students to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, and many will claim psychological diagnoses and psychiatric prescriptions that were never mentioned to David Brooks in 2001. Whereas organization kids were made nervous by questions of virtue and character, the distracted generation is wounded and eager for help, especially in articulating their questions about how to direct the energy of their souls.

Brooks’s observations about busyness at elite colleges were disturbing above all because college has, historically, been a time of orchestrated leisure. It insulated students from certain practical concerns so that they could attend to the cultivation of intellectual and social habits. The classical college experience democratized an aristocratic privilege: It offered strategically engineered leisure, an opportunity to develop practices that were not immediately useful but were deeply humanizing. The loss of this culture of character development through leisure, more than the loss of a previous generation’s chivalric code, was the real transformation Brooks discovered on elite campuses.

Today’s college students are more ready than were Brooks’s organization kids to realize that their souls were made for leisure. Ironically, the advent of AI chat tools may intensify this awareness. Often and correctly bemoaned as another temptation to cheat—chatbots are essentially automated personal plagiarizers—AI is also making clear that schoolwork always had an element of busywork and BS. Academia may bifurcate over the use of AI. Already, some communities are embracing it; others will renew their dedication to developing reading and writing skills—skills that address the soul’s desire to know itself.

I doubt that the keenest college students will embrace AI as another shortcut to thinking. Twenty-three years ago, perhaps they might have. Brooks’s organization kids were suffering, but they did not feel their suffering and so did not inquire into it. In the distracted suffering of the anxious children of the smartphone, I see a chance for a renewal of spiritual seeking, and even for the traditional psychological language of philosophy and theology to find new purchase. For though the busy soul may be able to forget that it is a soul, the distracted soul, through the very experience of distraction, receives constant reminders that it is a soul, and that it is unfulfilled.

Joshua P. Hochschild  is professor of philosophy at Mount St. Mary’s University.  

Image by  grits2go , licensed via  Creative Commons . Image cropped.

Articles by Joshua P. Hochschild

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/russia-celebrates-victory-day-as-putin-reminds-the-world-of-nuclear-ability

Russia celebrates Victory Day as Putin reminds the world of nuclear ability

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Thursday wrapped itself in patriotic pageantry for Victory Day, as President Vladimir Putin celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II by hailing his forces fighting in Ukraine and blasting the West for fueling conflicts around the world.

READ MORE: Russia attacks Ukraine’s power grid on day country celebrates defeat of Nazism in World War II

Even though few veterans of what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War are still alive 79 years after Berlin fell to the Red Army, the victory remains the most important and widely revered symbol of Russia’s prowess and a key element of national identity.

Putin has turned Victory Day — the country’s most important secular holiday — into a pillar of his nearly quarter-century in power and a justification of his military action in Ukraine.

Two days after beginning his fifth term in office, he led the festivities across Russia that recall the nation’s wartime sacrifice.

Russian President Vladimir Putin watches honour guards passing by during a flower-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Victory Day, which marks the 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, in central Moscow, Russia, May 9, 2024. Photo by Sputnik/Maxim Blinov/Pool via Reuters

“Victory Day unites all generations,” Putin said in a speech in Red Square that came on the coldest May 9 in decades amid some snow flurries. “We are going forward relying on our centuries-old traditions and feel confident that together we will ensure a free and secure future of Russia.”

As battalions marched by and military hardware — both old and new — rumbled over the cobblestones, the sky cleared briefly to allow a flyby of warplanes, some of which trailed smoke in the white, red and blue of the Russian flag.

Putin hailed the troops fighting in Ukraine as “our heroes” for their courage, resilience and self-denial, adding that “all of Russia is with you.”

He accused the West of “fueling regional conflicts, inter-ethnic and inter-religious strife and trying to contain sovereign and independent centers of global development.”

With tensions with Washington over Ukraine soaring to their highest level since the Cold War , Putin issued another stark reminder of Moscow’s nuclear might.

“Russia will do everything to prevent global confrontation, but will not allow anyone to threaten us,” he said. “Our strategic forces are in combat readiness.”

Nuclear-capable Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles were pulled across Red Square, underscoring his message.

The Soviet Union lost about 27 million people in World War II, an estimate that many historians consider conservative, scarring virtually every family.

Nazi troops overran much of the western Soviet Union when they invaded in June 1941, before being driven back all the way to Berlin, where the USSR’s hammer and sickle flag was raised above the ruined capital. The U.S., U.K, France and other allies mark the end of the war in Europe on May 8.

Russian tanks drive during a military parade on Victory Day, which marks the 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, May 9, 2024. Photo by Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters

The immense suffering and sacrifice in cities like Stalingrad, Kursk and Putin’s native Leningrad — now St. Petersburg — still serve as a powerful symbol of the country’s ability to prevail against seemingly overwhelming challenges.

Since coming to power on the last day of 1999, Putin has made May 9 an important part of his political agenda, featuring missiles, tanks and fighter jets. Medal-bedecked veterans joined him Thursday to review the parade, and many — including the president — wore the black-and-orange St. George’s ribbon that is traditionally associated with Victory Day.

About 9,000 troops, including about 1,000 who fought in Ukraine, took part in Thursday’s parade.

READ MORE: What are tactical nuclear weapons and why did Russia announce it would hold drills?

Although the U.S. and U.K. ambassadors did not attend, Putin was joined by other dignitaries and presidents of several former Soviet nations along with a few other Moscow allies, including the leaders of Cuba, Guinea-Bissau and Laos.

In his speech, he accused the West of “revanchism … hypocrisy and lies” in seeking to play down the Soviet role in defeating Nazi Germany.

Putin described Victory Day as “very emotional and poignant.”

“Every family is honoring its heroes, looking at pictures with dear faces and remembering their relatives and how they fought,” he said.

Putin, 71, talks frequently about his family history, sharing memories of his father, who fought on the front during the Nazi siege of the city and was badly wounded.

As Putin tells it, his father, also named Vladimir, came home from a military hospital during the war to see workers trying to take away his wife, Maria, who had been declared dead of starvation. But the elder Putin did not believe she had died — saying she had only lost consciousness, weak with hunger.

Their first child, Viktor, died during the siege when he was 3, one of more than 1 million Leningrad residents who died in the 872-day blockade, most of them from starvation.

For several years, Putin carried a photo of his father in Victory Day marches — as did others honoring relatives who were war veterans — in what was called the “Immortal Regiment.”

Those demonstrations were suspended during the coronavirus pandemic and then again amid security concerns after the start of the fighting in Ukraine.

Fireworks explode during celebrations of the Victory Day, marking the 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, in Moscow, Russia May 9, 2024. Photo by Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters

As part of his efforts to burnish the Soviet legacy and trample on any attempts to question it, Russia has introduced laws that criminalized the “rehabilitation of Nazism” that include punishing the “desecration” of memorials or challenging Kremlin versions of World War II history.

When he sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Putin evoked World War II in seeking to justify his actions that Kyiv and its Western allies denounced as an unprovoked war of aggression. Putin cited the “denazification” of Ukraine as a main goal of Moscow, falsely describing the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust, as neo-Nazis.

Putin tried to cast Ukraine’s veneration of some of its nationalist leaders who cooperated with the Nazis in World War II as a sign of Kyiv’s purported Nazi sympathies. He regularly made unfounded references to Ukrainian nationalist figures such as Stepan Bandera, who was killed by a Soviet spy in Munich in 1959, as an underlying justification for the Russian military action in Ukraine.

Many observers see Putin’s focus on World War II as part of his efforts to revive the USSR’s clout and prestige and his reliance on Soviet practices.

“It’s the continuous self-identification with the USSR as the victor of Nazism and the lack of any other strong legitimacy that forced the Kremlin to declare ‘denazification’ as the goal of the war,” Nikolay Epplee said in a commentary for Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

The Russian leadership, he said, has “locked itself up in a worldview limited by the Soviet past.”

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Ukrainian troops who lost limbs in war receive prosthetics and hope for the future

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Morning Briefing: Asia Pacific Edition

Thursday briefing: slovakia’s leader was shot.

Also, mixed reviews for King Charles’s portrait.

By Amelia Nierenberg

Shooting left Slovakia’s leader in ‘life-threatening’ condition

Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister, was shot five times and critically wounded yesterday. Officials said the attack appeared to be an assassination attempt and was politically motivated. Police said a suspect had been detained.

The interior minister said Fico was still in surgery hours after the shooting and remained in critical condition. Here’s the latest .

Videos from the scene showed the gunman shooting Fico in Banikov Square, in the center of the town of Handlova. The attacker is seen standing with other people behind a barrier before shooting Fico at close range when he came to greet them.

Who is Robert Fico? The 59-year-old politician is serving his third term. He has aligned with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, in opposing aid to Ukraine , and has strong ties to Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin.

China sent dozens of ships to confront Filipino fishing boats

China has deployed dozens of coast guard and maritime militia ships toward Scarborough Shoal, a disputed atoll in the South China Sea, to block a fleet of about 100 small Filipino fishing boats. While such confrontations have become commonplace as Beijing tries to assert control over a region far from its borders, this was an escalation.

“What we’re seeing this time, I would say, is definitely of another order,” said the director of SeaLight, a group that monitors the sea. He called China’s response a show of “overwhelming force.”

Background: The Filipino group organizing the flotilla of fishing boats said it wanted to assert the Philippines’ claims to Scarborough Shoal. The shoal, which Beijing calls Huangyan Island, has been under Chinese control since 2012. Filipino fishermen had long worked there, but since then their access has been restricted and sporadic.

Russia’s momentum in Ukraine has the U.S. worried

The White House is watching as Russia’s new offensive picks up speed in Ukraine’s northeast. U.S. officials are privately concerned that it could change the trajectory of the war , perhaps even reversing Russia’s once-bleak prospects.

Moscow’s electronic warfare techniques — which came to the battlefield late — have taken out artillery and drones provided by the U.S. and NATO. And the delay in U.S. aid allowed Russia to gain a huge artillery advantage. Ukraine’s lack of air defense ammunition meant Russia could use its air power with more impunity.

Analysis: Some experts say that Moscow’s true goal in taking territory around Kharkiv is to force Ukraine to reinforce the city, weakening the front lines elsewhere. A thinly spread Ukrainian military could give Russia the chance for another push in June.

For more: These maps show Russia’s advances .

WAR IN GAZA

Rafah: Israel directed many Palestinians to a “humanitarian zone.” Satellite imagery shows an overcrowded area that is damaged by strikes and lacking medical care.

Arms: The Biden administration told Congress that it intended to sell Israel more than $1 billion in new weapons .

Military: The leaders of Israel’s armed forces are frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because he has yet to develop a plan to govern Gaza after the war.

MORE TOP NEWS

Singapore: The prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, stepped down after 20 years . He oversaw a rise in prosperity — and discontent.

Hong Kong: YouTube said it would block the access of Hong Kong users to the protest anthem “Glory to Hong Kong,” complying with a court order.

New Caledonia: After deadly riots broke out, France moved to declare a state of emergency in the South Pacific territory, which has long tried to gain independence.

U.S. election: President Biden and Donald Trump have agreed to debates in June and September, which would be their first onstage clashes in more than three years.

Orcas: The whales sank another boat near the Strait of Gibraltar.

MORNING READ

Kei Kobayashi was the first Japanese chef to earn three Michelin stars in Paris. Now, he has come back to Japan to try to build an empire .

Lives lived: A.T. Ariyaratne, a Sri Lankan who fought to alleviate poverty in his country, has died at 92 .

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Talk about Bumbling: The dating app Bumble apologized after an ad campaign enraged women, its target audience.

The Bridgerton glow-up: Characters receive makeovers as they move from the sidelines of the plot into the spotlight.

Real estate: Some luxury buildings in the U.S. are offering at-home IV drips as an amenity.

ARTS AND IDEAS

King charles iii’s red portrait.

Royal portraits tend to be fairly staid, with symbols of state, of office, of pomp and lineage.

Which is why the new official portrait of King Charles III, painted by Jonathan Yeo, has created such a controversy . Some said he looked as if he were “burning in hell” or “bathing in blood.” A reference to “colonial bloodshed” rounded out the theme. Others compared it to a possessed portrait in “Ghostbusters II.”

This is not the first polarizing royal portrait. Take a spin through some other surprising or contentious paintings of royals .

RECOMMENDATIONS

Cook: Make a light coconut-miso salmon curry .

Read: In “ Chasing Hope ,” Nicholas Kristof recounts the highs and lows of his career as a Times correspondent.

Listen: This year marks the 50th anniversary of Cass Elliot’s death. This playlist highlights her range as a vocalist .

Block: Stop buying citronella candles. Try these effective mosquito repellers instead.

Heal: I was prescribed a long-term antibiotic. Is that safe ?

Play: Spelling Bee , the Mini Crossword , Wordle and Sudoku . Find all our games here .

P.S. My colleague David Pierson, who covers China, shared five things he’s enjoyed in Hong Kong .

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Amelia

Email us at [email protected] .

Amelia Nierenberg writes the Asia Pacific Morning Briefing , a global newsletter. More about Amelia Nierenberg