Hope

What Is HOPE?


Hope is the emotional state which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Despair is the opposite of hope. Hope is the "feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best" or the act of "look[ing] forward to something with desire and reasonable confidence" or "feel[ing] that something desired may happen". Other definitions are "to cherish a desire with anticipation"; "to desire with expectation of obtainment"; or "to expect with confidence". In the English language the word can be used as either a noun or a verb, although hope as a concept has a similar meaning in either use.

^{In Pyschology}

Dr. Barbara L. Fredrickson, Principal Investigator of the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab and Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, argues that hope "...comes into play when our circumstances are dire", when "things are not going well or at least there’s considerable uncertainty about how things will turn out". She states that "[h]ope literally opens us up...[and] removes the blinders of fear and despair and allows us to see the big picture [, thus allowing us to] become creative" and have "[b]elief in [a] better future".
"Psychologist, C.R. Snyder and his colleagues say that hope is cultivated when we have a goal in mind, determination that a goal can be reached, and a plan on how to reach those goals". Hopeful people are "like the little engine that could, [because] they keep telling themselves "I think I can, I think I can".
Hope is distinct from positive thinking, which refers to a therapeutic or systematic process used in psychology for reversing pessimism. The term "false hope" refers to a hope based entirely around a fantasy or an extremely unlikely outcome.

<sup>In Philosopy

Philosopher Richard Rorty understands hope as more than goal setting. Hope assumes a metanarrative, a story that serves as a promise or reason for expecting a better future. Rorty believes the Christian story and Marxism both proved to be false hopes because neither delivered. Jesus Christ promised to return but he hasn't. Communism promised equality for all but the economic system folded. Rorty says a new document of promise is needed for social hope to exist again. Philosophy and Social Hope. London: Penguin Books, 1999</sup>