Pettit, Philip

Hope and its place in mind - Thousand Oaks : SAGE, March 2004

People may have open minds on whether a life-extending drug or technology is going to be developed before their sixties and may strongly desire that development. Do they therefore hopre that it occurs? Do they hope for it in the substantive sense of "pining their hopes" on the development? No, they do not. Hoping for a prospect in that sense certainly presupposes having an open mind in whether it will occur and having a desire for its occurence. Buit, more crucially, it means investing the prospect with a characteristic, galvanizing, and orientating role: it envolves setting aside doubts about the possible nonoccurrence of the prospect and acting accordingly. This article offers a characterization of hope in that substantive sense and argues both that can be rational and that it is ubiquitous