ABSTRACT
The thesis of this essay is that there is a form of hope, called “fundamental” or “existential” hope by some philosophers, which is deeply related to our ability to make or find meaning in our lives, and that both the form of hope and the kind of meaning it makes possible are self-transcendent. Fundamental hope is found in the writings of the Christian philosophers Gabriel Marcel and Josef Pieper, who wrote in the aftermath of World War II, and the Jewish philosopher and theologian Emil Fackenheim, who was concerned with the meaning of the Holocaust for Jewish faith, history, and identity.
In Part I, I offer a brief primer on hope and situate fundamental hope in the larger conceptual landscape of theories of hope. Part II takes up fundamental hope in the thought of Marcel and Pieper. In Part III, I turn to Fackenheim’s work on the hope of the Jews during and after the Holocaust. The essay concludes with reflections about fundamental hope and its role in our lives.
