As scholars and activists have begun to note, without the ability to feel despair we might lack the necessary clarity to abandon failing pursuits and find new directions. In this paper, I add to the current debate regarding the nature and value of despair. I argue that despair should not be viewed strictly as a form of sadness but rather as an emotional reaction through which we apprehend the loss of a future as likely. As such, despair is not only valuable because it provides a reflective break. Instead, it is a response of restless apathy which prepares us both to retreat and renounce our commitments, and to launch last resort "desperate" acts. Despair is not only valuable as an antidote to wishful hoping but, more fundamentally, because it counteracts our resistance to reconsidering plans we are diachronically committed to. As beings with temporally extended agency, we form intentions that guide, monitor, and rationally control action across time. Despair allows us to respond to the disheartening lowering of chances of success by urgently reconsidering our plans, in spite of our inherent resistance to doing so.
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