Oppression and the Struggle for Hope

Abstract

This dissertation aims to understand how hope is formed and lost in human lives; particularly, by revealing the ways in which patterns of privilege and oppression can affect the hopes we come to form, and those that are out of our reach. I offer a perceptual account of hope according to which hope involves perception, belief, and desire, as well as a normative framework for evaluating hope. Orienting the dissertation around hope in the face of social and political injustices under oppression, I demonstrate the complex relationship between hope and the emotion of moral anger in these circumstances, and the potential role of hope in collective struggles against oppression.