Whether Experience Is a Cause of Hope?
Objection 1: It would seem that experience is not a cause of hope.
Because experience belongs to the cognitive power; wherefore the
Philosopher says (Ethic. ii, 1) that "intellectual virtue needs
experience and time." But hope is not in the cognitive power, but in
the appetite, as stated above (A. 2). Therefore experience is not a
cause of hope.
Obj. 2: Further, the Philosopher says (Rhet. ii, 13) that "the old
are slow to hope, on account of their experience"; whence it seems to
follow that experience causes want of hope. But the same cause is not
productive of opposites. Therefore experience is not a cause of hope.
Obj. 3: Further, the Philosopher says (De Coel. ii, 5) that "to have
something to say about everything, without leaving anything out, is
sometimes a proof of folly." But to attempt everything seems to point
to great hopes; while folly arises from inexperience. Therefore
inexperience, rather than experience, seems to be a cause of hope.
_On the contrary,_ The Philosopher says (Ethic. iii, 8) "some are
hopeful, through having been victorious often and over many
opponents": which seems to pertain to experience. Therefore
experience is a cause of hope.
_I answer that,_ As stated above (A. 1), the object of hope is a
future good, difficult but possible to obtain. Consequently a thing
may be a cause of hope, either because it makes something possible to
a man: or because it makes him think something possible. In the first
way hope is caused by everything that increases a man's power; e.g.
riches, strength, and, among others, experience: since by experience
man acquires the faculty of doing something easily, and the result of
this is hope. Wherefore Vegetius says (De Re Milit. i): "No one fears
to do that which he is sure of having learned well."
In the second way, hope is caused by everything that makes man think
that he can obtain something: and thus both teaching and persuasion
may be a cause of hope. And then again experience is a cause of hope,
in so far as it makes him reckon something possible, which before his
experience he looked upon as impossible. However, in this way,
experience can cause a lack of hope: because just as it makes a man
think possible what he had previously thought impossible; so,
conversely, experience makes a man consider as impossible that which
hitherto he had thought possible. Accordingly experience causes hope
in two ways, despair in one way: and for this reason we may say
rather that it causes hope.
Reply Obj. 1: Experience in matters pertaining to action not only
produces knowledge; it also causes a certain habit, by reason of
custom, which renders the action easier. Moreover, the intellectual
virtue itself adds to the power of acting with ease: because it
shows something to be possible; and thus is a cause of hope.
Reply Obj. 2: The old are wanting in hope because of their
experience, in so far as experience makes them think something
impossible. Hence he adds (Rhet. ii, 13) that "many evils have
befallen them."
Reply Obj. 3: Folly and inexperience can be a cause of hope
accidentally as it were, by removing the knowledge which would help
one to judge truly a thing to be impossible. Wherefore inexperience
is a cause of hope, for the same reason as experience causes lack of
hope.
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