Is hope always rational?
Is hope ever rational?
Rational (from dictionary.com):
1. Consistent with or based on reason; logical: rational behavior.
Hope (from dictionary.com):
1. The feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
I am still working on my thoughts. What are yours?
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The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
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3 comments:
Hmmm... Fantastic question, Andy!
Hope is one of my favorite pieces of humanity, if not my favorite. In a way hope, is never rational. Why in the world would we hope for something we know, rationally, is unattainable? So no, hope is never rational.
But hope is beautiful and it lives in the hearts of almost all mankind. It has been around for as long as humankind has been around. It's not going anywhere anytime soon. It's reasonable that we hope in the best, and the worst, of times. It's a built-in feature of us. So therefore it's only logical that we hope for something that is unattainable.
So maybe hope is one of the most rational of all feelings we experience.
I admit that right now I don't really care what exactly it is, only that it is a vital component of keeping things together when there is too much on your plate and something terrible is eating away at your heart.
Hope that things CAN and WILL get better. Hope that your loved ones aren't leaving, and hope that they are in the category of the less than 10%.
I'm hesitant to use the word always. I think that hope can often be rational. It all depends on what is driving your logical thought. If people hope, what they hope comes true, then future hoping could arguably be rational. Also, if you are working towards something, just because you can't see the end or know for sure it will work out, does not necessarily make hoping irrational (which is what it seems the questions may be inferring, not just "is hope rational" but conversely "is hope irrational"). There's my nerdy probably full of holes logical reasoning portion of my answer :)
However, one of the beautiful things about hope is that it doesn't matter if it is rational or not. It is hope. While it may be rational, that is not a necessary aspect or even a necessary analysis. I think of hope as that intuitive feeling inside you that there are variables in the world beyond your control and that there is always a chance these variables will work in your favor. It's something that fills that void between happenings when you most desperately need it to be filled. You may not think that what you hope for is likely, but it is still that one thing that you can always depend on. Even if what you feared comes to pass, it's not the hope that disappoints. In fact I think it's the hope that comforts. You can always hope.
I have two quotes which are about hope on my listography page that I really like:
"When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always be worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.”
-Malcom Forbes
"It would not be foolish to contemplate the possibility of a far greater progress still."
-John Maynard Keynes (I like to think of this quote as an argument that hope can be rational :) )
I'm sure if I think more on it I'll have more to contribute, but these are my initial thoughts.
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