Freire held hope as an ontological human need, not a voluntary choice.

Evidence

For Freire, hope was not so much a choice as it was a basic human need. In Pedagogy of Hope (1996), he wrote that hope is a natural human response to injustice and corruption. While acknowledging the hopelessness that some people feel in the face of oppression, he countered: “There is hope, however timid, on the street corners, a hope in each every one of us.” He went on: “I do not understand human existence, and the struggle needed to improve it, apart from hope and dream. Hope is an ontological need. Hopelessness is but hope that has lost its bearings.” He concluded: “I am hopeful, not out of mere stubbornness, but out of an existential, concrete imperative” (Freire, 1996, 2 Much of this section comes from the author’s book Paulo Freire: His Faith, Spirituality and Theology, co-authored with James D. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 834

Categorization

• DEFINE: Freire’s definition of hope as ‘ontological need’ and hopelessness as ‘hope that has lost its bearings’ is a distinct conceptual framing.
• XREF: connects to: Teaching skills without instilling hope for change fails students. — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 851; Freire’s abstract concepts grew from ground-level suffering he witnessed — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 1091; A military coup halted Brazil’s national literacy plan and exiled Freire — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed:…, 587 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Hope is active struggle rooted in human incompletion, not waiting #qualifies (0.85) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 267
• Hope is a passive affect called upon when we lack capacity to act #contradicts (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1870
• Genuine hope rests on disrespect for entrenched, durable suffering, not on guarantees. #contradicts (0.75)