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A Philosophy of Hope Quotes
A Philosophy of Hope
by
Lars Fredrik Händler Svendsen9 ratings, 4.44 average rating, 2 reviews
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A Philosophy of Hope Quotes
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“We are vulnerable and exposed, and that vulnerability is necessary in order for something to have meaning. Aristotle points out that he who does not believe that he can be hurt by anything does not fear anything either. Such a person cannot hope for anything either. Such a person cannot actually care about anything, since caring about something presupposes that something is at stake. Meaning in life comes from caring about something, and those who care become vulnerable. If you love someone, you have no guarantee that the person you love will not be taken away from you in an accident or that the relationship will fall apart. That is why it is precious. A life without vulnerability is a life without meaning.”
― A Philosophy of Hope
― A Philosophy of Hope
“Wittgenstein wrote a comprehensive critique of the Scottish anthropologist J. G. Frazer's masterpiece "The Golden Bough" (1890), a comparative study of religion and mythology. One of Wittgenstein's main objections was that Frazer ascribes the natives he discusses with irrational beliefs for which there is no evidence: for example, that a certain ritual will make it rain. The problem is that Frazer is unable to see what the natives are actually doing. Wittgenstein states: "Frazer is much more savage than most of his savages... His explanations of primitive practices are much cruder than the meaning of these practices themselves." While Frazer believes that the natives' actions are based on mistaken beliefs about causal relationships, Wittgenstein suggests that they are not based on such beliefs at all.
Once, after a very bad game, I smashed my tennis racket. Had my opponent thought like Frazer, he would have believed that my action was a ritual sacrifice aimed at changing the outcome of the tournament for me. But my action was not based on any such expectation. It was simply an immature expression of anger and disappointment. The most reasonable understanding of the natives' ritual practices involves considering them as expressions of hope, among other things, not as irrational notions of causal relationships. Our idea of causation stems from us observing regularities. We will have repeatedly seen that A is followed by B. What regularities would have led the natives to see a causal relationship between a specific ritual and a specific natural phenomenon such as rain? Is is unlikely that rain was usually brought about by a specific dance, and the natives must have seen that it sometimes rains despite no ritual being performed. Not least, the natives should have danced a lot during the driest parts of the year, but they didn't. So it's far more plausible to consider this dance an expression of hoping for rain. From that perspective there is nothing irrational about the natives' actions. The dancing is a shared expression of their understanding that the desired rain might come.”
― A Philosophy of Hope
Once, after a very bad game, I smashed my tennis racket. Had my opponent thought like Frazer, he would have believed that my action was a ritual sacrifice aimed at changing the outcome of the tournament for me. But my action was not based on any such expectation. It was simply an immature expression of anger and disappointment. The most reasonable understanding of the natives' ritual practices involves considering them as expressions of hope, among other things, not as irrational notions of causal relationships. Our idea of causation stems from us observing regularities. We will have repeatedly seen that A is followed by B. What regularities would have led the natives to see a causal relationship between a specific ritual and a specific natural phenomenon such as rain? Is is unlikely that rain was usually brought about by a specific dance, and the natives must have seen that it sometimes rains despite no ritual being performed. Not least, the natives should have danced a lot during the driest parts of the year, but they didn't. So it's far more plausible to consider this dance an expression of hoping for rain. From that perspective there is nothing irrational about the natives' actions. The dancing is a shared expression of their understanding that the desired rain might come.”
― A Philosophy of Hope
