I just saw this and I could not help wonder, have you ever felt despair - I am talking about the despair that takes you over, crushing you. Have you ever felt a sudden burst of hope that has lifted you out of darkness?

I went to an orphanage (S Africa) and a girl of about 8 yo came to sit next to me. She was (I hate to say this about a child) really ugly. She had been severely burnt when the shack they lived in caught fire (she was younger) and the parents no longer wanted her. Blacks who visit to give children sweets etc., never want to even greet her and will only pass on some sweets.

She sat next to me, very timid, expecting me to ignore her or get up and walk away. I talked to her and with fear in her eyes she put her arm around me. I placed my arm around her shoulders and it was as if her face suddenly burst into song.

The light shining from her was hope. For the first time she was being treated like a human being, like a child and she dared hope and clung to me.

Me being white, her being black, guess what - the matron came and took her away from me.

Still: I have seen the darkest of despairs and I have seen hope...and they both sure felt like emotions to me.

The examples you gave of hope ARE just concepts, for they are trivial. Be told that your child was in the school bus and it crashed. You rush over and you are forced to stand at a small distance and you see children being brought out, one by one, but not yours. That despair you feel, you may call it a mindset, but it sure will feel like an emotion. They carry her body out and it hangs and you now really despair. Then someone calls out, her heart is still beating. Damn, but if what floods you is not an emotion because it is hope....

Lack of hope can cause us to die
and hope can give us the courage to fight like lions.

I do not believe the effect of concepts can be that powerful.