Finding Hope in James Muyskens' The Sufficiency of Hope

Finding Hope in James Muyskens' The Sufficiency of Hope

Most people hope the world is the way they believe it is. That is, most people hope that their view of the world is right. They usually do not hope for the truth about things to be much better than what they suppose it is. Sometimes the hope is a factor in causing the belief; sometimes the hope stems from the desire to be right about one's belief; and in some cases the hope may follow the belief, i.e., one becomes accustomed even to an austere view of the world and finally comes to prefer it. It seems that most people, especially most philosophers, would rather be right than have the world turn out to be even a better place than their theory allows. They might not admit this outright, but one sees in their writings no signs that they hope they are wrong and the world is better than they have supposed; one never sees them say: ``This is a somewhat grim view I have proposed, and I hope very much that I am wrong, but I am driven to this view by solid considerations''. The late A. J. Ayer is reported to have said shortly before his death that he certainly hoped that death would be the end of him, in spite of having had a ``near death experience'' which had ``slightly'' shaken his disbelief in survival. It is hard to know why anyone would hope for annihilation.

But what about the people who do hope the world is a better place than their theory permits? One is curious to know how many atheists, for example, are regretful of the conclusion to which they believe the evidence points and hope the world is a better place than they suppose. Likewise we would like to know how many agnostics are regretful that the existence of God is not well supported by evidence, as they suppose,...

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...objects and gods differ only in degree and not in kind''. From a Logical Point of View (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953), p. 44.

5. Collected Papers, Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss, (edd.) (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1960). Volume and page number, respectively, noted in the text.

6. John Wisdom, ``Gods,'' Philosophy and Psychoanalysis (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1969), pp. 156f.

7. John Wisdom, Paradox and Discovery (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1969), p. ix.

8. Paul Arthur Schilpp, as noted in Steven J. Bartlett's ``Philosophy as Ideology'', Metaphilosophy, Vol. 17, No. 1, Jan. 1986, pp. 1ff. This article is a penetrating critique of the closed-mindedness of philosophers.

9. I am aware that I am exercising some nerve myself in saying what philosophers should not say.