The Spirit of Hope

by Byung-Chul Han

Hope presupposes an open future, which also implies unintended and unforeseeable events that cannot be controlled in advance. If we use the power of the promise to close down time altogether, that is, if we ‘dispose of the future as though it were the present’, hope becomes superfluous. Like hope, trust presupposes an open horizon. To trust someone means to build a positive relationship with that person despite a lack of knowledge of the future. Trust enables action in the absence of knowledge. Knowledge, by contrast, makes trust superfluous. Arendt, however, claims that ‘the force of mutual promise’ is ultimately translated into the form of the ‘contract’.38 A contract is based not on trust or on a promise but on violence. Where there is absolute trust or an absolute promise, a contract is superfluous. A contract involves violence insofar as it threatens penalties or sanctions for its violation. We enter into a contract because we cannot trust. Trust excludes the possibility of violence. A law on which we agree also has a contractual character. It is precisely the threat of the use of violence that forces the partners entering into a contract to abide by it, and likewise to abide by a law. A contract radically removes the space of trust. We have to rely on trust because we cannot determine all relations between humans in legal terms. Trust facilitates social interaction.