That we can hope is one of the capacities that define us as human beings. To hope means not just to have beliefs about what will happen, but to imagine the future as potentially fulfilling some of our most important wishes. It is therefore not surprising that hope has received attention by philosophers, psychologists and by religious thinkers throughout the ages. The contributions in this volume, written by leading scholars in the philosophy of hope, gives a systematic overview over the philosophical history of hope, about contemporary debates and about the role of hope in our collective life.

Edited by Claudia Blöser and Titus Stahl

1. Claudia Blöser & Titus Stahl: The Moral Psychology of Hope. An Introduction
Part I: Hope in the History of Philosophy
2. Douglas Cairns: Hope in archaic and classical Greek
3. Anne Jeffrey: Hope in Christianity
4. Claudia Blöser: Hope in Kant
5. Roe Fremstedal: Kierkegaard on Hope as Essential to Selfhood
6. Sarah Stitzlein: Pragmatist Hope
Part II: The Nature of Hope
7. Katie Stockdale: Emotional hope
8. Matthew Benton: Epistemological aspects of hope
9. Samantha Vice: Pessimism and the Possibility of Hope
10. Nancy E. Snow: Is Hope a Moral Virtue?
11. Matthew W. Gallagher, Johann M. D'Souza & Angela L. Richardson: Hope in Contemporary Psychology
12. Rika Dunlap: A Zen Buddhist Conception of Hope in Enlightenment
Part III: Social Contexts of Hope
13. Adrienne M. Martin: Interpersonal Aspects of Hope
14. Darrel Moellendorf: Hope for Material Progress in the Age of the Anthropocene
15. Titus Stahl: Political Hope and Cooperative Community