Despite the familiarity of hope in human experience, it is a phenomenon infrequently considered from a philosophical point of view. This book charts the centrality of hope in thought and action from first, second and third person perspectives. From everyday situations to extreme circumstances of trail and endings in life, the contours of hope are given a phenomenological description and subjected to conceptual analysis. This consistently secular account of hope sheds a different light on questions of agency and meaning.
Author(s): Jayne M. Waterworth
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 224
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
1 An Analysis of Everyday Hope......Page 14
1.1 Humans, other animals and hope......Page 15
1.2 Expecting or anticipating?......Page 19
1.3 Adopting hope or despair......Page 25
1.4 Objectives and objects......Page 37
1.5 Summary......Page 40
2 Phenomena in the Neighbourhood of Hope......Page 42
2.1 Passions and emotions......Page 43
2.2 Related negative phenomena......Page 54
2.3 Related positive phenomena......Page 67
2.4 Imaginative possibilities and memory......Page 75
2.5 Summary......Page 77
3 The Domain of Agency and its Perspectives......Page 78
3.1 Goals and objectives......Page 79
3.2 Exercising authority......Page 86
3.3 Commitment: projects and persons......Page 94
3.4 Summary......Page 102
4 Meaning in Life: Confronted by Suffering......Page 104
4.1 Aspects of hope; aspects of character......Page 105
4.2 Giving and finding hope......Page 112
4.3 Suffering in extraordinary circumstances......Page 115
4.4 Suffering in ordinary circumstances......Page 118
4.5 What, if not hope?......Page 125
4.6 Summary......Page 127
5 Meaning in Life: Confronted with Death......Page 129
5.1 Thinking about dying and death......Page 130
5.2 A medical context for suffering......Page 134
5.3 A healthy approach to unhealth and dying......Page 141
5.4 Summary......Page 153
Summary......Page 154
Appendix......Page 157
Notes......Page 160
Bibliography......Page 189
H......Page 194
Z......Page 195
