Why Hope? Reflections on Addiction and Psychedelics
A Philosophy in the Community event with philosophy professor Sarah Hoffman
Date: Friday, Sept. 13
Time: 7 pm
Location: The Refinery
Emmanuel Anglican (formerly St. James) Church Basement
607 Dufferin Avenue
About this event
A standard view of hope identifies it as a combination of desiring something and believing it possible but not certain. Adrienne Martin supplements this with the further idea that in hoping we also take ourselves to have sufficient reasons to engage in certain activities and feelings directed towards what we hope for. In this talk I explore these ideas and implications they have for understanding the role that hope and the capacity to hope seem to play in overcoming addiction. An account of hope like Martin’s illuminates this process and, additionally, why psychedelic-assisted therapy seems so promising for addressing substance use disorder.
Upcoming Events
Nearness: An Exhibition of Artworks from the Senior Painting Class
Dec 15-19, 2025
Created by senior painting students, these works consider how proximity to experience, environment, and material can be transformed into form, surface, and spatial arrangement
Philosophy in the Community: How Does Propaganda Work?
Jan 9, 2026
A public talk by Pierre-Francois Noppen (PhD), professor of philosophy
Book Launch: Winds of the North
Jan 9, 2026
Winds of the North: A Survey of the Canadian Wind Band Tradition and Repertoire is compiled and edited by Dr. Darrin Oehlerking (DMA)