Hope

Blöser, Claudia, Stahl, Titus | Encyclopedia entry in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017

Abstract

Discussions of hope can be found throughout the history of philosophyand across all Western philosophical traditions, even thoughphilosophy has traditionally not paid the same attention to hope as ithas to attitudes like belief and desire. However, even though hope hashistorically only rarely been discussed systematically—withimportant exceptions, such as Aquinas, Bloch and Marcel—almostall major philosophers acknowledge that hope plays an important rolein regard to human motivation, religious belief or politics.Historically, discussions of the importance of hope were oftenembedded in particular philosophical projects. More recent discussionsof hope provide independent accounts of its nature and its relation toother mental phenomena, such as desire, intention and optimism.