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In Our Time

Hope

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.69.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2018

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of hope. To the ancient Greeks, hope was closer to self-deception, one of the evils left in Pandora's box or jar, in Hesiod's story. In Christian tradition, hope became one of the theological virtues, the desire for divine union and the expectation of receiving it, an action of the will rather than the intellect. To Kant, 'what may I hope' was one of the three basic questions which human reason asks, while Nietzsche echoed Hesiod, arguing that leaving hope in the box was a deception by the gods, reflecting human inability to face the demands of existence. Yet even those critical of hope, like Camus, conceded that life was nearly impossible without it.

With

Beatrice Han-Pile Professor of Philosophy at the University of Essex

Robert Stern Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield

And

Judith Wolfe Professor of Philosophical Theology at the University of St Andrews

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.9

Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.

0:07.6

There's a reading list to go with it on our website and you can get news about our programs

0:11.4

if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.

0:14.8

I hope you enjoyed the programs.

0:16.6

Hello, according to the poet Hesseyard, hope was all that remained in Pandora's jar once

0:21.7

all the buildings inside had escaped and spread across the world.

0:25.6

And wrote that in the 8th century BC, and ever since philosophers have been devalued

0:30.0

over hope and why it remained, was it something valuable that would help humanity deal with

0:34.6

those evils or was it another of those evils perhaps the worst?

0:38.9

To Hesseyard, it was for the gullible, but St Paul and Thomas Aquinas turned it into

0:43.1

one of the three virtues along with faith and love.

0:46.2

Kant made it a cornerstone of his philosophy, while Nietzsche argued it was a delusion and

0:50.9

the debate continues.

0:52.6

Let me to discuss the philosophy of hope, our Beatrice Handpile, Professor of Philosophy

0:56.2

at the University of Essex, Robert Stern, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield,

1:01.4

and Judith Wolf, Professor of Philosophical Theology at the University of St Andrews.

1:06.2

Beatrice Handpile, why was hope in Pandora's jar in the first place?

1:11.0

Well, we don't really know.

1:12.6

I mean, it's open to interpretation and when we look at the myth, one important thing is

1:17.4

to remember that it's a story of revenge.

1:20.5

Zeus was angry at Romothius for having sterling fire and given it to mortals, and so he decided

...

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