Did Anybody See That?

Let me just start by saying, I think we've all had moments like this; when we do something that falls short of our hope for ultimate coolness in all that we do, which in itself isn't so bad, so long as no-one sees it. 

In Philosophy discussions of hope have rarely been considered "hot topics" -- though, most philosophers acknowledge that hope influences human motivation, religious belief or politics, the latter relying heavily upon hope for votes. 

The standard account of hope is that it involves a compound attitude, a desire for a positive outcome, and a belief in that outcome's possibility. 

Popular beliefs lump hope in with optimism. But hope is more like an attitude, enabling people to direct their thoughts and actions towards the hopeful possibilities they envision. Independent of whether or not those hopes are realized, such as life after death, these adopted attitudes lead many people towards behaving in more virtuous ways than the lack of hope would otherwise inspire.  

In the scenario of why hope is funny, illuminated in our 'hoping no-one saw me' quip, we might argue that human beings inherently view hope as gullible (Timaeus, Plato), as a type of false pleasure - and that false pleasures and gullibility are funny in that they defy rational logic.  The incongruency associated with something being false, while simultaneously bringing pleasure, makes us laugh. 

When we enjoy the pleasure of anticipation what we are enjoying is only a thought. 

This is why the act of thinking can be considered as funny. One could argue that thinking "thinking is funny," is what's funny. One could also argue that writing about philosophy and humor together is a virtuous act of courage and that every courageous person is by nature hopeful. 

Happy Thoughts Travel Fast is directed towards the pleasures of the mind, such as those written about by Thomas Hobbes in the Leviathan, in which he associates hope as a matter of appetite. Associating appetite with "personal taste," we can, therefore, consider most phenomena as a direct result of personal taste. If we resonate with a concept, sensation, or outcome, acting in accordance with it becomes a matter of personal taste (rather than a validation of its authority). 

Nietzche and Schopenhauer weren't so keen on the notion of hope. Schopenhauer thought that animals experience less pleasure than humans because they lack hope and therefore the pleasures of anticipation. I think possibly Schopenhauer didn't have a dog. Anyone who has a dog knows they experience anticipation. They wait for us to return, they wait for their treats, they wait for the ball we're going to throw. They know something good is about to happen as they excitedly sit, doing their best to be good until the moment arises.

Nietzsche is a famous critic of hope. In the third preface to Zarathustra, he writes: "do not believe those who speak fo you of extraterrestrial hopes!" SPOILER ALERT: He goes on to completely debunk hope in Beyond Good and Evil (1886). When Nietzsche considered Pandora's myth (Human, All Too Human), he referred to hope as "the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man." Neitzsche lived a rather peculiar, depressingly self-indulgent lifestyle. Even though one could defend his theories, they too would have to resonate with depressing thoughts (in their personal tastes). 

Is 'hoping no-one saw us do something we consider ridiculous and therefore not ideal' a matter of prolonging the torment of judgment we made about accidentally pushing the pull door? Or, could it be a matter of faith in our own ability to covertly move in a way that no one saw us? You know, Ninja-like moves. The later inspires pleasure in recognizing our cat-like reflexes and covert abilities to avoid detection and the subsequent relief that follows thinking that we got away with it. In other words, people laugh out of relief (theory of humor). 

Whether or not hope is an overestimation of our ability to achieve positive outcomes, many people still agree on hope's value in living a good life. This desire-condition captures the experience of being attracted to positive outcomes. In this way, hope has an intrinsic value because mental imaging is pleasurable, it increases one's self-understanding, and it inspires love towards others and towards oneself (Luc Bovens' 1999).