r/badphilosophy • u/EpistemeY • Sep 22 '24

Reading Group Hope is strange

Hope is the quiet force that lingers in uncertainty, allowing us to endure hardship by believing in the possibility of change. It’s not blind optimism, but a resilient belief that light exists beyond the present darkness. As Nietzsche said, "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man," yet it remains the thread that keeps us moving forward, imagining a better tomorrow.

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u/razzraziel Sep 22 '24

Hope is a blueprint for the future; like other plans, it may succeed, fail, or require adjustments.

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u/uniform_foxtrot Sep 22 '24

The ancient Greek considered it one of the great evils. (See: Pandora's box).

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u/BillMurraysMom Sep 23 '24

I think Foucault was definitely responding to Nietzsche in his own work on Hope. Foucault has a fascinating allegory about a personified Hope trapped in hell by the devil Raphael. He writes:

“Hope is a prisoner of the House of Hope, driven mad by the years of psychological and physical torture inflicted upon her. Despite it all, Hope remains hopeful and optimistic, a quality that has fascinated Raphael enough to keep her alive…

…Hope will appear outside the Chamber of Egress”

She wears an “amulet of elemental torture” and is a cleric with dwarfism and manic paranoid outbursts (from the torture).

Foucault was trying to say that even though everything is a prison, and nobody hates prisons more than him, he can still imagine a cool prison story in the depths of hell.

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Hope

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u/Sampato Sep 24 '24

I have hope that one day this sub will be good again.

Honestly, I don't understand what has happened, have all the good posters gone?