Case Study of Hope
I am fascinated with language. Always have been. Might have been my socratic training approach to philosophy, which teaches that in order to discuss a concept in depth you need to check your own knowledge of what IT is.
Take the example of when Socrates was accused of impious acts and behaviors. He started by asking a simple question: what does impious mean? This led him to realize he was asking the wrong question at the wrong time and where he should start is to define piety. This might seem like an exhausted pointless exercise, but really it tests how well you understand what you know and what others know. Also language is a tricky thing where meanings evolve and societal misuse or misunderstanding can be prevalent for big concepts like truth or justice. I have done this with the word 'happiness' and now I want to examine the word 'hope.'
Definitions:
So what is hope?
According to Merriam dictionary it means, "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen." This is quite a passive definition more along the lines of a wish... you want something to happen and you expect to happen. Seems to me hope is where wishing and faith meet. Faith is confidence that something WILL happen and a wish is something you want to happen. Even the verb is passive in that it is simply the act of wanting.
Now just because that IS the definition does not mean that is how the word is used or even intended. Words change and evolve or might be tied to scripture or certain trends in culture. Seems like the word 'hope' has three houses the spiritual house, the entrepreneur house, and the skeptics judgement house.
Spiritual House:
Some religions and sects of Christianity actually teach that Hope is an evil thing. It lacks the depth and strength of faith, and if you have faith, then hope is unnecessary. Hope is like a lower form of Faith. Hope is the spark, but faith is the fire. Meaning the goal is to move from hope to faith.
But some religions speak of hope as a belief that things can change or an expectation that things can change. It is often a word used to recruit individuals into faith or to help people who are going through tough times. So maybe hope is something that only those who have no fire in their spirits need, but once recovered it should move onto faith.
Entrepreneur House
This is more of the definition that Barack Obama meant when he titled his book 'Hope'. This hope is more on lines of an optimistic viewpoint that people can follow hope to action, resiliency, and the idea that all things can move forward. Bad times can turn to good times if you use hope to drive your action. The idea is that hope is fuel... to lose it means a giant blow to one's progress and to have it gives you the courage to take risks to move forward in your life.
Skeptics Judgement
Skeptics also view hope as a spark, but views it with all the properties of fire. That hope is a weak foundation to rely on. Hope can disappear like a spark with a gust of wind or a bit of rain. Hope can also be turned into a dangerous wild fire by charismatic leaders who wish to prey on your feeling of hope to do their bidding. The idea of hope is appealing to humans, because ultimately we yearn for better and so we can become embittered if we lose it or far too impassioned when this desire is manipulated. These people view it as a weakness. These people would rather have faith, or rather a plan, or rather act, or believe they have other fuel sources that is not hope.
Conclusion:
Can these three definitions exist at the same time? Yes, people use it all the time. The same person can utilize all three.
Think about it have we all done this? I believe we have.
"I hope things will get better." - Spiritual (Giving power to something beyond your control, but not quite certain enough to be faith.)
"I have hope. So I keep going and I am going to make my dreams come true." - Entrepreneur (Meaning hope is fueling our journey to achieve our dreams)
"Hopes and prayers don't work. We need action." - Skeptics Judgment. (Meaning hope accomplishes nothing)
Like the English language, we humans, have all three of these influences in our lives. I was curious about this, because it seemed to me that my usage of hope was quite inconsistent then I realized the history of the word is quite inconsistent.
So hope will always be used. Sometimes as a desire for change, sometimes to drive action forward, and sometimes as a source of frustration. Hope might be the most human word in our dictionary.
Take the example of when Socrates was accused of impious acts and behaviors. He started by asking a simple question: what does impious mean? This led him to realize he was asking the wrong question at the wrong time and where he should start is to define piety. This might seem like an exhausted pointless exercise, but really it tests how well you understand what you know and what others know. Also language is a tricky thing where meanings evolve and societal misuse or misunderstanding can be prevalent for big concepts like truth or justice. I have done this with the word 'happiness' and now I want to examine the word 'hope.'
Definitions:
So what is hope?
According to Merriam dictionary it means, "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen." This is quite a passive definition more along the lines of a wish... you want something to happen and you expect to happen. Seems to me hope is where wishing and faith meet. Faith is confidence that something WILL happen and a wish is something you want to happen. Even the verb is passive in that it is simply the act of wanting.
Now just because that IS the definition does not mean that is how the word is used or even intended. Words change and evolve or might be tied to scripture or certain trends in culture. Seems like the word 'hope' has three houses the spiritual house, the entrepreneur house, and the skeptics judgement house.
Spiritual House:
Some religions and sects of Christianity actually teach that Hope is an evil thing. It lacks the depth and strength of faith, and if you have faith, then hope is unnecessary. Hope is like a lower form of Faith. Hope is the spark, but faith is the fire. Meaning the goal is to move from hope to faith.
But some religions speak of hope as a belief that things can change or an expectation that things can change. It is often a word used to recruit individuals into faith or to help people who are going through tough times. So maybe hope is something that only those who have no fire in their spirits need, but once recovered it should move onto faith.
Entrepreneur House
This is more of the definition that Barack Obama meant when he titled his book 'Hope'. This hope is more on lines of an optimistic viewpoint that people can follow hope to action, resiliency, and the idea that all things can move forward. Bad times can turn to good times if you use hope to drive your action. The idea is that hope is fuel... to lose it means a giant blow to one's progress and to have it gives you the courage to take risks to move forward in your life.
Skeptics Judgement
Skeptics also view hope as a spark, but views it with all the properties of fire. That hope is a weak foundation to rely on. Hope can disappear like a spark with a gust of wind or a bit of rain. Hope can also be turned into a dangerous wild fire by charismatic leaders who wish to prey on your feeling of hope to do their bidding. The idea of hope is appealing to humans, because ultimately we yearn for better and so we can become embittered if we lose it or far too impassioned when this desire is manipulated. These people view it as a weakness. These people would rather have faith, or rather a plan, or rather act, or believe they have other fuel sources that is not hope.
Conclusion:
Can these three definitions exist at the same time? Yes, people use it all the time. The same person can utilize all three.
"I hope things will get better." - Spiritual (Giving power to something beyond your control, but not quite certain enough to be faith.)
"I have hope. So I keep going and I am going to make my dreams come true." - Entrepreneur (Meaning hope is fueling our journey to achieve our dreams)
"Hopes and prayers don't work. We need action." - Skeptics Judgment. (Meaning hope accomplishes nothing)
Like the English language, we humans, have all three of these influences in our lives. I was curious about this, because it seemed to me that my usage of hope was quite inconsistent then I realized the history of the word is quite inconsistent.
So hope will always be used. Sometimes as a desire for change, sometimes to drive action forward, and sometimes as a source of frustration. Hope might be the most human word in our dictionary.
Comments
Post a Comment