“Bringing new life in”: Hope as a know-how of not knowing
Elena Cuffari, George Fourlas and Maceo Whatley. Frontiers in Psychology, volume 13, 14 December 2022. Hypothesis and Theory, in the section Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.948317.
The paper treats hope as something people do together in language, not a feeling one person has. It sets out an enactive and ecological way of looking at hope practices, then reports a small qualitative study of nine expecting or new parents (five couples). Its finding is that uncertainty sits at the centre of hoping, and that when not knowing is practiced skillfully, with some education and economic security behind it, it lets other people reframe what is said and helps families resist what the authors call linguistic enclosure.
Where it came from
Maceo studied moral psychology at Franklin & Marshall College (class of 2022), in the Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind program. His senior research looked at agency, hope and solidarity, with Elena Cuffari and George Fourlas as advisors. The college wrote about it in October 2021.
He also proofread and helped index Fourlas’s book, Anti-Colonial Solidarity.