Thanks Ryan, I hadn’t actually spotted that issue with the term “existential hope”. I don’t think it’s necessarily enough to sink the term, but it’s worth being aware of.
English doesn’t have a work for the chance of a good thing, which makes it awkward to find the right term. Earlier drafts just stuck to “existential eucatastrophe”, which has the right meaning. However it was pointed out that eucatastrophe is very obscure and most people would see the word ‘catastrophe’ inside it and assume it meant something bad. We wanted a term which would give something of the right impression.
That falls a bit flat for me—neither the right connotations (as ‘existential dream’ more or less has) nor the right actual meaning (as ‘existential eucatastrophe’ has).
Thanks Ryan, I hadn’t actually spotted that issue with the term “existential hope”. I don’t think it’s necessarily enough to sink the term, but it’s worth being aware of.
English doesn’t have a work for the chance of a good thing, which makes it awkward to find the right term. Earlier drafts just stuck to “existential eucatastrophe”, which has the right meaning. However it was pointed out that eucatastrophe is very obscure and most people would see the word ‘catastrophe’ inside it and assume it meant something bad. We wanted a term which would give something of the right impression.
Perhaps you could use the phrase ‘existential reward’ instead of ‘existential eucatastrophe’?
That falls a bit flat for me—neither the right connotations (as ‘existential dream’ more or less has) nor the right actual meaning (as ‘existential eucatastrophe’ has).