https://doi.org/10.26142/stgd-2019-022
This article addresses two issues related to hope and examined by Robert Spaemann. The first concerns the ideas propagated by world ideologies of hope. They were exposed by the prominent German thinker as illusory and utopian because they want to tie Man to the world and assure him paradise in this mortal life. Spaemann focuses on the Marxism of the 1960s and 1970s and especially the so-called ideology of pleasure promoted by Herbert Markuse. Spaemann emphasises the social consequences of those ideologies: first, the intoxication with the ideologies of many Western societies and their extraordinary euphoria, which suddenly turned into deep frustration. The ultimate perspective of what all world ideologies have to offer is most terrifying with regard to our existence. The author’s analysis of the other issue encompasses primarily the nature of hope, against which the importance of Christianity is shown both for the present and the future. In its mission, the virtue of hope inspires, motivates and encourages. The context in which this is done is manifold and diverse. Similarities were pointed out in the approach to the question of understanding hope in its two aspects – natural and supernatural – of both Robert Spaemann and Joseph Pieper. This aspect of the issue has not yet been analysed. Moreover, the author emphasised Spaemann’s indirect emphasis on responsibility for others as an aspect of the question of hope.
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Język Polski
English