That we can hope is one of the capacities that define us as human beings. To hope means not just to have beliefs about what will happen, but to imagine the future as potentially fulfilling some of our most important wishes. It is therefore not surprising that hope has received attention by philosophers, psychologists and by religious thinkers throughout the ages. The contributions in this volume, written by leading scholars in the philosophy of hope, gives a systematic overview over the philosophical history of hope, about contemporary debates and about the role of hope in our collective life.

Claudia Blöser is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Her main areas of research are practical philosophy, especially Kants practical philosophy and moral psychology. Her publications includeZurechnung bei Kant(2014, Berlin/New York: de Gruyter), articles inEthical Theory and Moral Practice, Kantian Review,Philosophia,Ratio.Together with Titus Stahl, she has authored the Stanford Encylopedia article on hope (2017) and Fundamental Hope and Practical Identity (Philosophical Papers, 2017).

Titus Stahl is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Groningen. He works on social and political philosophy, critical social theory, privacy theory and the history of political thought. He has published inConstellations, Critical Horizons, Social Theory and Practice,andEthics and Information Technology.His book Immanent Critique will appear with Rowman and Littlefield in 2020. Together with Claudia Blöser, he has authored the Stanford Encylopedia article on hope (2017) and Fundamental Hope and Practical Identity (Philosophical Papers, 2017).

1. Claudia Blöser& Titus Stahl: The Moral Psychology of Hope. An Introduction



Part I: Hope in the History of Philosophy

2. Douglas Cairns: Hope in archaic and classical Greek

3. Anne Jeffrey: Hope in Christianity

4. Claudia Blöser: Hope in Kant

5. Roe Fremstedal: Kierkegaard on Hope as Essential to Selfhood

6. Sarah Stitzlein: Pragmatist Hope



Part II: The Nature of Hope

7. Katie Stockdale: Emotional hope

8. Matthew Benton: Epistemological aspects of hope

9. Samantha Vice: Pessimism and the Possibility of Hope

10. Nancy E. Snow: Is Hope a Moral Virtue?

11. Matthew W. Gallagher, Johann M. DSouza& Angela L. Richardson: Hope in Contemporary Psychology

12. Rika Dunlap: A Zen Buddhist Conception of Hope in Enlightenment



Part III: Social Contexts of Hope

13. Adrienne M. Martin: Interpersonal Aspects of Hope

14. Darrel Moellendorf: Hope for Material Progress in the Age of the Anthropocene

15. Titus Stahl: Political Hope and Cooperative Community