Abstract

Barilan’s (2012) essay “From Hope in Palliative Care to Hope as a Virtue and a Life Skill” provides a novel way of exploring hope as experienced by people at the end of life. He proposes that hope can be usefully seen as an Aristotelian virtue; something to be “conscientiously chosen” as a “habit of behavior, perceptiveness and mental response, holistically considered” (Barilan 2012, 166). Hope coalesces with other virtues, particularly courage, in the terminally ill, to enable human flourishing even at this time of great uncertainty, loss, and ultimately personal annihilation. The virtue of hope in an individual might manifest itself in various ways, particularly in creativity and caring relationships. ..