On Hope and Fear, Etc by Baruch Spinoza
“On Hope and Fear, Etc.” examines passions arising from thoughts about future good and evil, distinguishing whether a thing is considered accidental or necessary and whether a person must act to bring it about or prevent it. Hope is joy mixed with sorrow when an uncertain future good seems possible; fear is the corresponding state when a possible future evil is anticipated. Confidence is unmixed joy when a good is thought certain, while despair is sorrow when a bad event is believed inevitable. In converse terms, hope seeks the non-arrival of evil, fear dreads the non-arrival of good, confidence expects evil not to come, and despair believes good will not come. Other passions concern the thinker’s own action. Vacillation arises when a person must act but reaches no decision. Intrepidity or bravery is a manly resolution to produce an attainable result. Emulation occurs when someone chooses an action because another has first succeeded in it. Pusillanimity describes knowing what should be done to promote good or hinder evil but failing to do it; when especially strong, it is timidity. Jealousness or jalousie is anxiety over retaining the sole enjoyment and possession of something already acquired. The work judges Hope, Fear, Confidence, Despair, and Jealousy to arise from wrong opinion, since all things have necessary causes and happen necessarily as they do. Confidence and despair depend upon prior hope and fear: confidence follows hope for a supposed good, and despair follows the corresponding expectation of evil. Such passions cannot belong to a perfect man, because they involve attachment or aversion toward mutable things. Vacillation, Pusillanimity, and Timidity likewise reveal imperfection. Any benefit they may produce is merely accidental or negative, as when someone is prevented by indecision or lack of courage from pursuing what he mistakenly takes to be good and thereby avoids evil. These passions therefore have no place in one guided by true Reason. Courage, Boldness, and Emulation are left to be understood through what has already been said concerning Love and Hatred.
By Baruch Spinoza · First published 1660 · Genre: Philosophy, Ethics, Psychology · 1,168 words
First lines
We shall now begin to speak of Hope and Fear, of Confidence, Despair, and Vacillation, of Courage, Boldness and Emulation, of Pusillanimity and Timidity, and lastly of Jealousy, and, as is our wont, we shall take them one by one, and then indicate which of these can hinder us, and which can profit us. We shall be able to do all this very easily, if only we attend closely to the thoughts that we can have about a thing that is yet to come, be it good, be it bad.
The ideas which we have about things have reference either
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On Hope and Fear, Etc is listed on Textopian as an essay by Baruch Spinoza, dated 1660 CE.
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- Work type: Essay
- Author: Baruch Spinoza
- Date: 1660 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Philosophy, Ethics, Psychology, Rationalism, Metaphysics
- Length: 1,168 words
- Structure: 1 section, 16 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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- Work identity for On Hope and Fear, Etc by Baruch Spinoza
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Genres
- Philosophy — A philosophical examination of human emotions, their causes, definitions, and ethical value within Spinoza's rationalist system.
- Ethics — The work judges passions according to whether they hinder or benefit human flourishing and argues that a person guided by reason should overcome irrational affects.
- Psychology — It classifies and analyzes mental states including hope, fear, confidence, despair, vacillation, courage, timidity, emulation, and jealousy.
- Rationalism — Its argument relies on reason, necessary causation, and the correction of false opinion rather than intuition, revelation, or narrative experience.
Tags
philosophy · ethics · emotions · human nature · reason · passions · psychology · rationalism · virtue · freedom · desire · joy