All themes

Hope

This theme runs through several big questions. Here are the ones where it plays out.

The questions that illuminate it

Relation to oneselfHope

Is hope a force that sustains life and action, or an illusion we ought to let go of?

Hope gives the strength to hold on and to act when all seems lost, but it can blind us to what is and make us put life off until later; giving it up can free the courage to face the real, or dry up the drive to go on. To take a position is to say whether one can be lucid without ceasing to hope.

The principleof hopeLuciditywithout hopeThomas AquinasEpicurusSchopenhauerYOU

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Relation to oneselfTonality of reality

Is the world fundamentally good, or marked by the tragic?

The same existence can be read as a gift worthy of trust or as a struggle with no final reconciliation, and this background hue colours our joys and misfortunes in advance. To take a position is to say whether hope is lucidity or blindness.

MetaphysicaloptimismTragicthoughtLeibnizZhuangziSchopenhauerYOU

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