112. Despair as Contrary to Hope

Subscribe in Podcast App | Download Transcript

Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Contrariety in the Irascible Passions #

• Two types of contrariety exist:
  • In the concupiscible: contraries have opposite objects (love/hate, joy/sadness)
  • In the irascible: contraries involve approach and withdrawal from the same object
• Despair and hope exemplify irascible contrariety through excess and recess (going toward vs. going away)
• This differs from fear and hope, which are contrary through objects derived from the concupiscible (good vs. bad)
• The order in Thomas’s treatment is not accidental: hope precedes despair, fear precedes boldness, anger third

The Object of Hope and Despair #

• Hope’s object is a bonum arduum (difficult good)
• This same good can be regarded in two ways:
  1. With possibility of being obtained → attracts us, we hope
  2. With impossibility of being obtained → repels us, we despair
• Both presuppose desire for the good; they differ in judgment of achievability
• Despair implies not merely the absence of hope but active withdrawal from seeking

Philosophical Precedent: Plato’s Phaedo #

• Socrates’ friends initially despair when objections undermine seemingly solid arguments about the soul’s immortality
• They conclude: if arguments that seemed good become questionable, how can we trust arguments at all?
• Socrates responds by teaching them to distinguish good arguments from bad, introducing the need for τέχνη περὶ λόγους (an art concerning arguments)
• This is the first known demand in history for a systematic art of argument, anticipated by Socrates, developed by Aristotle
• Socrates leads them from despair to restored hope through proper instruction

Teaching and the Balance of Hope and Fear #

• A good teacher must balance encouraging students (giving hope) with cautioning them (introducing healthy fear)
• Berquist’s example with Kasurik: when encountering capable students, restraint and limitation are needed rather than encouragement
• When meeting Monsieur Dion: Dion’s pedagogical principle was fear (rejecting new ideas first), requiring students to defend their positions before acceptance
• The confessor similarly must balance: giving hope to the despairing (e.g., a woman despairing after abortion) and fear to the careless (those returning habitually to sin)

Connection to the Four Principal Passions #

• The four principal passions are joy, sadness, hope, and fear
• Tragedy moves us through fear and pity (sorrow)
• Comedy moves us through hope and mirth (joy)
• Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 3: “My fear to hope, my sorrows unto joys” illustrates the four passions and the movement from tragedy to comedy

Key Arguments #

First Objection: Is Fear Rather Than Despair Contrary to Hope? #

• Objection: The passage in Shakespeare suggests fear is contrary to hope (as sorrow to joy), so perhaps fear, not despair, is hope’s true contrary
• Response: Fear is contrary to hope through contrariety of objects (good vs. bad), derived from the concupiscible passions. Despair is contrary to hope through contrariety of motion (approach vs. withdrawal), which is proper to the irascible. Both are in some sense contrary to hope, but despair is the more proper contrary within the irascible appetite itself.

Second Objection: Hope and Despair Not About the Same Thing #

• Objection: Contrary things must be about the same object. Hope regards the good; despair regards something bad that impedes obtaining the good. Therefore they are not proper contraries.
• Response: Despair does not regard evil as evil but rather as making impossible the obtainment of a good. Both hope and despair concern the same difficult good—one judges it possible, the other impossible.

Third Objection: Despair Implies Rest, Not Motion #

• Objection: Motion is opposed to rest as privation. But despair seems to imply immobility rather than motion, while hope implies motion of extending oneself to the good. Therefore despair is not contrary to hope.
• Response: Despair implies a motion of withdrawing from what is desired, not mere rest or privation. This is genuine motion, contrary to hope’s motion of approaching.

Important Definitions #

Bonum Arduum (Difficult Good) #

• A good that is difficult to obtain but possible to achieve
• The proper object of hope
• Requires judgment that something is both desirable and achievable despite difficulty

Contrariety of Excess and Recess (Excessus et Recessus) #

• Going toward something and going away from it
• The distinctive form of contrariety in irascible passions
• Exemplified in boldness/fear and hope/despair

Motion of Withdrawing (Motus Recedendi) #

• The characteristic motion of despair
• Involves active withdrawal from seeking the desired good
• Contrasts with the motion of approaching (motus accedendi) in hope

Examples & Illustrations #

Platonic Example: Socrates and the Soul’s Immortality #

• Socrates’ friends despair when Simmias and Cebes object to the arguments for the soul’s immortality
• They fear they cannot trust arguments at all
• Socrates compares this to becoming a misanthrope: just as a man who trusts unwisely becomes hateful of mankind, one who fails to understand arguments becomes hateful of arguments
• Solution: there are some arguments you can trust completely (Analytics), some not at all (Sophistic Refutations), and some partially (Topics, Rhetoric)
• By teaching this art of discernment, Socrates restores their hope

Literary Example: Shakespeare, Henry VI Part 3, Act 4, Scene 6 #

• King Henry: “Master Lieutenant, now that God and friends have shaken Edward from the regal seat, and turned my captive state to liberty, my fear to hope, my sorrows unto joys”
• Illustrates the four principal passions and the reversal from tragedy to comedy

Personal Pedagogical Examples #

• Kasurik as teacher: Encouraged Berquist when he was uncertain, but would have limited a more capable student
• Monsieur Dion’s approach: His principle was fear; he rejected new ideas first, requiring rigorous defense before acceptance. Despite seeming harsh, this developed precision in thinking
• Berquist’s thesis experience: When Dion identified a needed change in the order of his argument, Berquist immediately saw the necessity and abandoned his former approach

Modern Scientific Example: Heisenberg and Bohr #

• Heisenberg and Niels Bohr nearly despaired while trying to understand quantum theory
• Bohr asked: “Can nature really be as absurd as it seems to us?”
• Bohr abandoned the discussion (despair) and went skiing to Norway
• Heisenberg persisted in hope and made a breakthrough; Bohr independently arrived at another solution
• Schrodinger resisted the quantum interpretation so strongly he wished he’d never entered physics (despair)
• This shows how despair can interrupt discovery; persistent hope enables breakthroughs

The Communists vs. the Nihilists (Whitaker Chambers) #

• Chambers observed Columbia University students treating ideas like “ping-pong balls”—knocking them back and forth without care or seriousness
• These students had despaired of truth itself
• By contrast, communists took ideas seriously enough to make revolution, showing they had not despaired
• Yet the communists were mistaken, while the nihilists simply gave up on truth

Despair About Knowing Truth: Historical Example #

• Pre-Socratic philosophers despaired of knowing truth because:
  • They knew only the sensible world
  • Sensible things are always changing (Heraclitus’ river)
  • Therefore nothing could be said definitively about them
• Socrates turned away from natural philosophy in this despair
• Plato overcame despair by introducing forms and definition as means of knowing unchanging realities
• Augustine follows Plato (in harmony with faith), seeing things known through God’s ideas

Notable Quotes #

“My fear to hope, my sorrows unto joys” — Shakespeare, Henry VI Part 3, Act 4, Scene 6

“We need an art about arguments” — Socrates in Plato’s Phaedo (Berquist’s interpretation)

“When it came to something impossible, men depart” — Aristotle, Ethics, Book III (cited by Thomas)

“Error is a great part of misery” — Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles

“If you hope in God but have no fear of God’s justice, you’ll become presumptuous; if you have only fear of the divine justice and no hope in His mercy, you would despair” — Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Psalms

“Desperation presupposes desire, just as hope does” — Thomas Aquinas (in this article)

Questions Addressed #

Is Despair Truly Contrary to Hope? #

• Resolution: Yes, through the contrariety of excess and recess (approaching vs. withdrawing from the same object), which is proper to irascible passions. This differs from fear, which is contrary to hope through opposite objects (good vs. bad) derived from concupiscible passions.

Do Hope and Despair Concern the Same Object? #

• Resolution: Yes, both concern the same difficult good (bonum arduum), but despair regards it as impossible to obtain while hope regards it as possible. The difference lies in the judgment of possibility, not in different objects.

What Distinguishes Despair from Mere Absence of Hope? #

• Resolution: Despair is not merely privation or lack of hope; it involves active withdrawal from seeking the desired good—a genuine motion contrary to hope’s motion of approaching.

How Do Hope and Fear Relate to Despair and Boldness? #

• Resolution: Fear and boldness represent contrariety through opposite objects (bad vs. good) in irascible passions as derived from concupiscible. Hope and despair represent contrariety through opposite motions (approaching vs. withdrawing) that is proper to irascible passions themselves.