[ExI] Prisoner of bad philosophy: Carl Sagan couldn’t allow himself to hope

[BillK]

On 27 July 2018 at 15:20, Giulio Prisco wrote:
> Prisoner of bad philosophy: Carl Sagan couldn’t allow himself to hope
>
> It’s impossible not to love Carl Sagan, a prophet and a poet of the
> space age. But why couldn’t he allow himself to hope?...
>
> https://turingchurch.net/prisoner-of-bad-philosophy-carl-sagan-couldnt-allow-himself-to-hope-a037ba0705e6
> _______________________________________________


Because hope is really just wishful thinking.

Wishful thinking has some good uses of course. Many tasks would not be
attempted without it. Often a task has to be done that is unappealing
and seems likely to produce little benefit. But with a dash of wishful
thinking, you might be lucky and things might turn out much better
than expected.
I expect even Sagan benefited from this outlook, judging by the
projects he undertook.

But death is a different class of task. It is a task where you are
helpless and your own efforts are useless. Any good outcome is totally
dependent on chance and systems that you have no knowledge of and that
are totally outside your control. So resignation becomes appropriate.

(Resignation - State of uncomplaining acceptance in the face of
something undesirable but unavoidable).

BillK