Hope’s Place in Our Lives

Abstract This chapter explores the nature of hope. It argues that hope is a way of seeing in a favorable light the possibility that an outcome one desires and believes to be possible obtains. This understanding of hope is similar to many competing accounts of the nature of hope in the philosophical literature. Setting the debate about which precise theory of hope is correct aside, the significance of human difference to experiences of hope and our relative power to affect the world is explored. A feminist perspective on hope reveals that oppression is a threat to hope. Attending to the power dynamics that shape how we hope, this chapter illustrates the ways in which people and institutions in positions of power use hope to further their ends. It then traces the relationship between the hope we place in others, normative expectation, and trust.