Abstract
The cognitional side of hoping may include imagining, but it must include assessments of possibility and, I argue, desirability. Hoping thus involves beliefs about the possibility and the worth of what is hoped for.
Hope is the passion for the possible. Søren Kierkegaard
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Homo Viator, p. 30.
I use the more homey word “unlikely” to avoid the more distinction-laden “probability.” “Probability” and “probably” have both the sense of “more likely than not” (better than 50% chance) and “some chance, but not much” (probability greater than zero). Further, probability is of two kinds, mathematical or statistical, and inductive. For the point being developed here, further discussion is not necessary, but is available (see J.P. Day, “Anatomy of Hope and Fear,” Mind, New Series 79 (July 1970): 369–384, for references to Russell, Carnap, and Kneale). Sound hoping does require such sophistication.
See this essay’s presentation of Bloch on pp. 74–76.
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© 1987 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht
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Godfrey, J.J. (1987). Hoping, Possibility, Desirability, and Belief. In: Godfrey, J.J. (eds) A Philosophy of Human Hope. Studies in Philosophy and Religion, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3499-3_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3499-3_6
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