On Hope

The etymology of the word "hope" is unclear to me. Its Spanish counter-part, "esperanza," comes from "esperar," to wait, and "anza," that which is, as in "crianza " (breeding), "lanza" (lance, i.e. that which is throw), etc. It is the subjective angle, if you will, of waiting. Hope is about the future, about the very act of the distance between now and some sought.

Hope is what drives life, because hope is the act of fate unfolding. What has no fate, has no future, has no hope.

A wink to Darwinists: where does this principle fall within the hierarchy of natural selection?

Hehehe. I can't sit here and allow that post go unresponded to.

You did enlighten me with the post though.

The saying: Don't hold your breath (waiting for something wished for to happen).

Likewise: Don't rely on hope (waiting for something wished for to happen).

Rather than sitting on one's ass hoping and praying for something wished for to happen, I think it much better to get up off one's ass and take action to cause whatever is wished for to become reality through good, honest, hard work. Then you have something you can say: "I did that."

Hope is an instinctual gift that one must bestow on another.  The 'wish' is for another to benefit from our care transcending our physical limitations thus becoming an improved shared fate.  One who exercises hope benefits in generosity of spirit and many, many, more intangible ways.

There are Darwinists around here?

I rather see my investigation as a refinement of the term. Hope is often seen in this life-coachy way you say, but seen in the way I describe it rather paints a picture of a man looking at a microwave, or a great spinstress seeing all the pieces of her plan fall into place.

Try to think of it as a function of the inevitable discrepancy between eventuality and mise en place. This way of considering it rehabilitates the term, reclaiming it from the thus-no-less-formidable life coach industry.

Shouldn't one ascribe to be the refinement? Reclaiming what becomes objectified seems tawdry as far as endeavors go. Suppose it's another form of romantic pessimism; behold our reclamation industry.

Even as I see how other, more ephemereal endeavours of the different catharsis of the spirit can appear more gratifying, I am old-school Greek in that I have a fetish for the claims on words.

Hope you'll understand!

Hi-D wrote:

Hope is an instinctual gift that one must bestow on another.  The 'wish' is for another to benefit from our care transcending our physical limitations thus becoming an improved shared fate.  One who exercises hope benefits in generosity of spirit and many, many, more intangible ways.

There are Darwinists around here?

I can't recall hope ever being an instinct. We want a change - an effect. We create the cause. Simple.

Compassion
Conservativism
Humility

Those are tangible attributes. Why the need for the intangible?

Pezer wrote:

I rather see my investigation as a refinement of the term. Hope is often seen in this life-coachy way you say, but seen in the way I describe it rather paints a picture of a man looking at a microwave, or a great spinstress seeing all the pieces of her plan fall into place.

Try to think of it as a function of the inevitable discrepancy between eventuality and mise en place. This way of considering it rehabilitates the term, reclaiming it from the thus-no-less-formidable life coach industry.

If a man pushes the time on the microwave to 2:22 it will take 2:22 before it stops no matter how hard he looks at it, no matter how much he hopes it will hurry up and get done.

If the spinstress is paying attention to what she is doing her work will be without flaw based on her abilities.

Results (effects) depend on causes, not hope.

Pezer wrote:

Even as I see how other, more ephemereal endeavours of the different catharsis of the spirit can appear more gratifying, I am old-school Greek in that I have a fetish for the claims on words.

Hope you'll understand!

Ah! The Greeks and their many mythologies. Even they had a hard time dealing with reality. They placed man above nature.


The words are all wasted if one had not grasped the concept that was being spoken to.

And once the concept has been grasped the words can be forgotten.

Sisyphus

Quote :

I can't recall hope ever being an instinct.  We want a change - an effect.  We create the cause.  Simple.

I don't think of hope as an instinct either. There was a time when I hoped for things. I think it's human. Then there came a time when I went in the opposite direction and almost felt that it was such a negative feeling, a drawback of sort, which could keep us from determining our own life, making our own decisions. The very act  of hoping to me almost seemed to make me feel weak and like a silly human.  I felt that prayer and hope had something in common - too much delusion, too much waiting around for something or someone else to make something happen.


But I do now feel that there is a positive side to hope or hoping. It's capable of giving someone the right kind of attitude, an optimistic  one, which can allow a person to see "possibilities" and what can be achieved.
It's all about achieving the right play, the right balance, between hope which is fertile hope and hope which is unhealthy and stagnant.

What's the opposite of hope? Despair.
Again, I suppose what we really need is a healthy balance between hope and self-determination.

Hope is like being able to see that there just might be light at the end of the tunnel. Hope sees possibilities, not necessarily predictions.

Quote :

Why the need for the intangible?

Because without hope, life could become very bleak and dark. Without hope, those struggling with cancer would give up. Without hope, those wanting children might not have them. Pessimism, its polar opposite, dampens all areas of life. An optimistic attitude and mood can be self-healing sometimes.

I think that one could call "truth" intangible. Is there any need for that? Without the intangible, how mundane might philosophy be?
Why is God such an important concept in philosophy? Because the concept of a God is so intangible.

To wonder about things which are intangible enriches one's life. Sometimes one's dreams can be quite intangible. That's what  makes them so important and interesting.  
Our very Selves are quite intangible, don't you think? We search for answers and because we realize how difficult it is to find them, because so much is intangible, it only whets our appetites for more.


Perhaps we  can say that hope is a kind of "unconscious" instinct - without it, could our species survive long? Without eventually giving up and going home.

Quote :

Results (effects) depend on causes, not hope.

Well, there are effects for each cause, some positive, some negative, so in a way what you're saying is true but I rather think that they, both the causes and the effects are more dependent on action/responses.


Someone's home is burning. It is not so much the fact that the home is burning that brings on the effect of the fire being put out. It is the firemen responding to that burning house and having the courage and struggling to put out the fire which actually becomes the effect.
Somewhere when all of that is happening, do you think that it's possible, along with all of their determination and hard work, that hope might enter into their hearts and minds - strong hope that they will be able to put out that fire and save the day?

I think that hope is a strong imperative in certain important life moments - it's the wings which give rise to determination and action.