The focus theory of hope

Most philosophers now agree that hope for a specific outcome involves more than just desire plus the presupposition that the outcome is possible. This chapter argues that the additional element of hope is a disposition to focus on the desired outcome in a specific sort of way. The chapter surveys the debate about the nature of hope in the recent literature, offers objections to some important competing accounts, and describes and defends the view that hope involves a kind of focus. It concludes by considering some key advantages to this account of hope, including that it makes sense of the intuitive thought that there are moral and pragmatic norms on hope that go beyond the norms on desires and beliefs.