Original scientific paper

IS THERE HOPE IN THE CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY?

Nenad Malović ; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

After an introductory clarification of terminology, and a definition of the extent of the discussion, the article analyses the recurrence of the idea of hope in the history of philosophy. Starting form the meaning of hope in the greek antiquity, the perception of hope from the Christian perspective is accentuated, especially in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. In the middle ages, in the concept of Joachim da Fiore there is an attempt of perceiving the Christian hope as immanent. Later, following the Decartes’s cognition-theory change of route, in an understanding of scientific shaped by experiment and mathematics, there is no place for hope, since it exceeds the acceptable methods of cognition. The philosophy of existentialism reassumes the question of hope, in a different prospective. The text will compare two mutually contrary philosophers of existentialism: the Marxist utopist Ernst Bloch and Gabriel Marcel, leaning on the Christian message. In the following section a description is given: an outline of the spiritual situation of the contemporary man in the world suffering the process of globalisation. At the end, the author will sketch the perspective and the task of philosophy in a leadership of the globalisation of the spirit that could be a prerequisite for a globalisation of hope, offered by the Christian message.

Keywords

hope; philosophy of existentialism; Ernst Bloch; Gabriel Marcel; contemporary man; crisis; utopia; globalisation; philosophy; transcendence

Hrčak ID:

220772

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/220772

Publication date:

10.8.2008.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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