Hope and the Uncertain Future

Authors

  • Juhani Pietarinen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.24234/wisdom.v3i2.107

Keywords:

hope, fear, uncertainty, active power, Spinoza, Plato

Abstract

Benedict Spinoza defined hope as an inconstant joy – inconstant, because hope involves uncertainty and doubt. Hope means optimism mixed with pe­ssimistic feelings. For Spinoza, hope amounts to an increase in our inherent active power, in our vitality or love of life, but because of being associated with fear, hope also involves something which is apt to re­duce this power. Our beliefs concerning future out­comes are crucial here. They form the ultimate basis of our hope.

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References

1. Marcuse, H. (1989). “The Obsolescence of the Freudian Concept of Man”. In Critical Theory and Society, edited by S. E. Bronner and D. MacKay Kellner. London: Routledge.
2. Pietarinen, J. and Viljanen, V. (2009). The World as Active Power. Studies in the History of European Reason. Leiden: Brill.
3. Plato. (1997). Republic (translated by G. M. A. Grube). In Plato. Complete Works, edited by J. M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett.
4. Spinoza, B. (1994). The Ethics (translated by E. Curley). In A Spinoza Reader, edited by E. Curley. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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Published

2014-12-01

How to Cite

Pietarinen, J. (2014). Hope and the Uncertain Future. WISDOM, 3(2), 168–173. https://doi.org/10.24234/wisdom.v3i2.107

Issue

Section

Articles