Philosophies of Gratitude
Ashraf H. A. Rushdy
Abstract
Philosophies of Gratitude is a study of gratitude as a philosophical concept. It explores what philosophers from Aristotle to Kant have said about gratitude, and examines what role the idea of gratitude has played in their philosophies. It also looks at the three primary ways we think about gratitude—as an emotion we feel in response to a gift or benefit, as an act we perform to express our thankfulness, and as a virtuous disposition in which we are ready to be grateful to the world we inhabit. Like love and trust, gratitude is a way we react to other people in our lives, sometimes for who the ... More
Philosophies of Gratitude is a study of gratitude as a philosophical concept. It explores what philosophers from Aristotle to Kant have said about gratitude, and examines what role the idea of gratitude has played in their philosophies. It also looks at the three primary ways we think about gratitude—as an emotion we feel in response to a gift or benefit, as an act we perform to express our thankfulness, and as a virtuous disposition in which we are ready to be grateful to the world we inhabit. Like love and trust, gratitude is a way we react to other people in our lives, sometimes for who they are (lovable or trustworthy) and sometimes for what they do (act benevolently toward us). It is a way we feel and act toward others. It is a primary way we situate ourselves in relationships. Philosophies of Gratitude examines key historical moments when gratitude was an important philosophical concept—in classical antiquity, the early modern era, and the Enlightenment—in order to discover what gratitude meant for those who produced our fundamental Western notions of ethics. It then studies the forms gratitude assumes—as a feeling, act, disposition—to discern what role our emotions play in our ethical responses to the world. Finally, the book assesses what we can say about ingratitude as a response that usually strikes us as a moment when a human being fails to act morally, but may also sometimes indicate a deeper kind of ethical stand against injustice.
Keywords:
gratitude,
benevolence,
sentiment,
virtue,
debt,
duty,
altruism
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2020 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780197526866 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2020 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780197526866.001.0001 |
