Gratitude's Fitting Growth

Abstract

Philosophical discussion of gratitude tends to emphasize the way in which the emotion is responsive to manifestations of benevolence (or good will). In some cases, however, gratitude “grows” or increases in strength across time in ways that are intuitively fitting but unaccounted for by gratitude’s sensitivity to benevolence. To make sense of this kind of gratitude growth, I argue that there are conditions under which manifestations of benevolence—particularly, benevolent hopes—can rationally accommodate the unforeseen and unintended outcomes to which they give rise, rendering fitting a greater degree of gratitude than was fitting in response to the original manifestations of benevolence.