Living with Hope by Prof Maria Frahm-Arp

Living with hope

In times of crisis, it is easy to tell people to have hope.?Hope that tomorrow will be better than yesterday, hope that what you so desperately want will happen.?We generally define hope as expecting something with confidence. But, hope is a tricky concept to which the sceptics respond by asking what evidence is there to hope in anything??During COVID, hope for the end of lockdown and the return to ‘normal’ has been something that has kept many of us going and now that we are in Level 1 lockdown things don’t feel quite like we had hoped for. It might therefore be useful to reflect a bit on our own sense of hope or hopelessness.?

In the famous Greek myth of Pandora’s box, Pandora in her curiosity opens a box that unleashes the vices of greed, lust, anger and disease onto the world.?However, at the bottom of the box is hope, which is never taken out of the box.?The Greco-Roman philosophers debated if hope was the virtue that would help humanity overcome all the vices in the box or was it actually the most damaging of all the vices because it lead to delusions? Many philosophers have written about hope asking if it is a virtue or a vice. Some, like the young Nietzsche, argued that hope is a vice because it deludes people into a false understanding of the world.?Other philosophers have questioned the moral value of hope because they argue it stops people from working at things and may encourage them to sit back and do nothing because they are hoping for something better to happen, thus making it impossible for them to succeed in life because they are not actively engaged in pursuing their goals (Jarrett).?Some philosophers argue that due to the materialist drive of the contemporary world in which we need to achieve targets and wealth, humanity is losing hope in a better future, and thus losing hope altogether (Hernandez 2011).

Cultures and religions look at the question of hope differently.?In Norse mythology, hope is depicted as a fool and bravery and cheerfulness are praised.?In Christianity St Paul wrote that hope is one of the three most important virtues, together with love and faith.?In Hinduism, the philosophical importance of hope as essential to human life is unpacked in the Bhagavad Gita, one of the Hindu sacred texts.?Hope, it is argued, is what helps people to stay on the right road and do their duty in this life. In both these religious systems, hope is based on a future where good triumphs over evil.?The Christian can hope in heaven and life after death, while the Hindu devotee can hope in the bliss of moksha (liberation from this world into the joy of enlightenment). In most African ‘Traditional’ Religions hope is an important virtue that helps believers to live according to the ethical and moral system of their religion, in the hope that God and the ancestors will hear their prayers and bless them with the things they hope for (Ndemanu 2018).

Hope as a virtue that is not based on a religious system or other worldly outcomes is explored in philosophy and psychology. Kant and Freud both regarded it as a virtue that helped people to psychologically cope with crises experienced in life. Freud, often referred to as the ‘father of psychology’, famously said that people need three things – love, work and hope. Kant, a philosopher writing in the seventeen hundreds, argued that hope in a better future, based in human striving not the Divine, developed resilience in people.?These ideas have shaped modern psychology.?The school of positive psychology places great importance on hope.?The psychologist Barbara Fredrickson (2008) argues that, particularly in a crisis, hope is what enables people to unleash creative ideas, possibilities and solutions.?While Charles R. Snyder (1994) shows how there are three elements to hope that account for why it is a virtue or positive good in people’s lives.?Hope encompasses goals. Goals are the things you hope for, therefore you develop a sense of purpose.?These goals then determine the pathways or the actions you will take to achieve that goal, so they give you direction.?Finally, goals that you hope for give you an agency as you understand and believe that you can effect change in your own life.?

As we come out of high levels of lockdown into level 1 and are able to return to work, we are experiencing the hoped-for return to ‘normal’ and a world in which it is largely safe to socially interact (while still wearing masks and social distancing).?While hope kept us going through the more restrictive levels of lockdown, some people may experience the return to working on campus as somewhat disappointing, unwanted, or difficult.?The hoped-for freedom, comradery and structure of the workday on campus is not exactly what we were hoping for.?For many philosophers this is why they argue that hope is a tricky vice rather than a virtue, because when the hoped-for thing happens it can be disappointing.?The positive psychologists on the other hand say the skills of learning to set a goal (i.e. to hope for something), determine what action you will take to achieve that goal and then finding your inner strength and ability to do so, are the exact skills you need to use to adjust when the hoped-for outcome turns out to be a bit challenging.?

Now that we have all returned to campus we need to re-adjust our hopes and expectations.?We have experienced a different way of living and working and many people found a rhythm in the flexible workday that suited them.?Some enjoyed the comparative isolation living in something of a social bubble, while for others it was a time of family bonding and togetherness.?Change is always challenging, even if it is a change to something we had hoped for.?As we move back to working on campus full time we need to reset our goals and hopes.?As you reset your hopes and goals, take time to reflect on what you hope for, perhaps while driving home in the car or taxi, think about what you really enjoyed about working from home and how you can incorporate some of this into your new working life. Think about the things you hoped for while in more restrictive levels of lockdown and find ways to experience these things. Through the last 18 months we have all learnt that by hoping for something we have developed resilience and an ability to navigate change. Now that we are experiencing what many of us hoped for, we paradoxically need to find ways to cope with this and transition into the return to more social freedom. This, like any change, is challenging, so give yourself time to adjust to set new hopes and find ways to realize and experience the things you had hoped for while in earlier forms of lockdown. I kept hoping to go to restaurants with my friends so this will be my way of actioning what I had hoped for.?

?

References

Jarrett, Christian. "Is it ethical to instill false hope?". Research Digest.

Fredrickson, Barbara L., et al. 2008. ‘Open Hearts Build Lives: Positive Emotions, Induced Through Loving-Kindness Meditation, Build Consequential Personal Resources’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95:1045–1062.

Hernandez, J.G., 2011. Gabriel Marcel's ethics of hope: evil, God and virtue (Vol. 2). A&C Black.

Ndemanu, M. 2018. ‘Traditional African religions and their influences on the worldviews of Bangwa people of Cameroon: Expanding the cultural horizons of study abroad students and professionals.?Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, XXX (1): 70-84

Snyder, Charles D. The Psychology of Hope: You Can Get Here from There. New York: The Free Press, 1994, pp. 7-19

?