TY  - JOUR
A1  - Blöser, Claudia
T1  - Global poverty and Kantian hope
T2  - Ethical theory and moral practice
N2  - Development economists have suggested that the hopes of the poor are a relevant factor in overcoming poverty. I argue that Kant’s approach to hope provides an important complement to the economists’ perspective. A Kantian account of hope emphasizes the need for the rationality of hope and thereby guards against problematic aspects of the economists’ discourse on hope. Section 1 introduces recent work on hope in development economics. Section 2 clarifies Kant’s question “What may I hope?” and presents the outlines of his answer. Crucially, hope is rational if it is rational to trust in the structures of reality on which the realization of one’s hope depends. Section 3 argues that central tenets of Kant’s account of what makes hope rational can be applied to the context of poverty. It becomes apparent that the poor often have good reason to be hopeless since they may not trust fundamental structures that are necessary for realizing their hope. Thus, the insight that the poor need more hope must go hand in hand with a commitment to establishing trustworthy political structures, such that their hope can be rational. Section 4 highlights the relevance of the secular highest good for a better understanding of the justification and scope of our duties to the poor in a Kantian framework.
KW  - Hope
KW  - Poverty
KW  - Kant
KW  - Highest Good
KW  - Economics
KW  - Agency
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/69615
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-696154
SN  - 1572-8447
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
VL  - 26
IS  - 2
SP  - 287
EP  - 302
PB  - Springer Science + Business Media B.V
CY  - Dordrecht [u.a.]
ER  -