Hope is understood to be a significant part of human experience, including for motivating behaviour, promoting happiness, and justifying a conception of the self as having agency. Yet substantial gaps remain regarding the development of the concept of hope in the history of philosophy. This collection addresses this gap by reconstructing and analysing a variety of approaches to hope in late 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy.
In 1781, Kant’s idea of a “rational hope” shifted the terms of discussion about hope and its role for human self-understanding. In the 19th century, a wide-ranging debate over the meaning and function of hope emerged in response to his work. Drawing on expertise from a diverse group of contributors, this collection explores perspectives on hope from Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Schopenhauer, J. S. Beck, J. C. Hoffbauer, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Georg Friedrich Creuzer, Kierkegaard and others. Chapters consider different aspects of the concept of hope, including the rationality of hope, appropriate and inappropriate applications of hope and the function of hope in relation to religion and society.
The result is a valuable collection covering a century of the role of hope in shaping cognitive attitudes and constructing social, political and moral communities. As an overview of philosophical approaches to hope during this period, including by philosophers who are seldom studied today, the collection constitutes a valuable resource for exploring the development of this important concept in post-Kantian German philosophy.
Foreword, George Di Giovanni (McGill University, Canada) Introduction, Anna Ezekiel (Independent Researcher, Hong Kong) and Katerina Mihaylova (MLU Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) 1. Between Need and Permission: The Role of Hope in Kant’s Critical Foundation of Moral Faith, Günter Zöller (LMU Munich, Germany), translated by Anna Ezekiel (Independent Researcher, Hong Kong) and Katerina Mihaylova (MLU Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) 2. Hopeful Pessimism: The Kantian Mind at the End of all Things, Andrew Chignell (Princeton, USA) 3. Hope for Divine Aid in Kant’s Religion, Lawrence Pasternack (Oklahoma State University, USA) 4. Kant, Beck and the Highest Good, Fiacha D. Heneghan (Vanderbilt University, USA) 5. Between Faith and Reason: Is J. H. Tieftrunk’s Concept of Hope a Postulate?, Ingomar Kloos (Independent Researcher), translated by Anna Ezekiel (Independent Researcher, Hong Kong) 6. Fichte on Optimism and Pessimism, Rory Phillips (University College London, UK) 7. The Autonomy of the Heart: Forberg on Action without Belief, Kevin Harrelson (Ball State University, USA) 8. Mind Subverted to Madness: The Psychological Force of Hope as an Affect in Kant and J.C. Hoffbauer, Katerina Mihaylova (MLU Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) 9. What May I Hope? Schleiermacher’s Answer to Kant’s Third Question, Jörg Noller (LMU Munich, Germany) 10. C. A. Eschenmayer: History as the Realm of Freedom and Moral Development, Cristiana Senigaglia (University of Trieste, Italy /LMU Munich, Germany) 11. Undirected Directionality: Jakob Friedrich Fries on Hope, Faith, and Comprehensive Feelings, Paul G. Ziche (Utrecht University, Netherlands) 12. Humboldt, Bildung, Language, and Hope, Susan-Judith Hoffmann (McGill University, Canada) 13. In the Hope of a Philosopher of Nature, Daniel Whistler (University of London, UK) 14. Knowledge, Faith and Ambiguity: Hope in the Work of Novalis and Karoline von Günderrode, Anna Ezekiel (Independent Researcher, Hong Kong) 15. Friedrich Creuzer and the Claims of the Symbolic, Allen Speight (Boston University, USA) 16. When my Heart says so… Hope as Delusion in Schopenhauer’s Philosophy, Marie-Michele Blondin (Collège Montmorency, Canada) 17. Hope And Faith: Kierkegaard’s Call for the Self to develop its Relationship to Itself, Esther Oluffa Pedersen (Roskilde University, Denmark) Index
Katerina Mihaylova is Lecturer in Philosophy at MLU Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. Anna Ezekiel is Honorary Fellow at the University of York, UK, and Visiting Faculty at Parami University, Myanmar.
Reviews for Hope and the Kantian Legacy: New Contributions to the History of Optimism
Was darf ich hoffen? - What may I hope? This volume is an indispensable source for everyone interested in the enlightenment prehistory of Kant’s third question, Kant’s philosophy of hope itself, and especially its post-Kantian appropriation. The contributions are highly instructive, insightful, and thought-provoking. * Dietmar H. Heidemann, Professor of Philosophy, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg * This splendid volume of historical-philosophical reflections on hope is an indispensable first port of call for scholars deeply interested in the enduring Kantian legacy of its use. The three meticulously curated articles presented here provide a representative sample of the diversity and multifaceted nature of the volume, and they compellingly demonstrate the rich intellectual treasure yet to be unearthed in post-Kantian philosophy of hope. * Philosophy in Review * This rich and comprehensive collection of papers has now radically changed the landscape of the metaphysical discussion of hope in studies of German philosophy. * Symphilosophie: International Journal of Philosophical Romanticism *
