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Finding hope

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Michael Milona
Michael Milona*
Affiliation:
Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
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Abstract

This paper defends a theory of hope according to which hopes are composed of a desire and a belief that the object of the desire is possible. Although belief plus desire theories of hope are now widely rejected, this is due to important oversights. One is a failure to recognize the relation that hope-constituting desires and beliefs must stand in to constitute a hope. A second is an oversimplification of the explanatory power of hope-constituting desires. The final portion of the paper uses an enhanced understanding of the psychology of hope to make progress on normative questions about hoping well.

Keywords

Hopedesirecognitive baseidealsmoral psychology
Type
Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 49 , Issue 5 , August 2019 , pp. 710 - 729
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2018

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Footnotes

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Current affiliation: Philosophy Department, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA.

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