ABSTRACT

Gratitude is in order for many of the good things people do for us that exceed what they could reasonably have been required or expected to do. Anyone might praise such deeds, when they are praiseworthy, or reward them or even honor them, although there is ordinarily no obligation to do so. But only beneficiaries incur debts of gratitude. A beneficiary does not always become indebted– only for something costly, or requiring unusual effort, or for something very substantial or meaningful to the beneficiary. 1 But frequent failure to honor obligations of gratitude display the fault of ingratitude. I have argued, following Thomas Hobbes (1949, p. 47), that the basic obligation of gratitude is to not give one’s benefactor (good) cause to regret having befriended one (Card, 1988). That idea is so abstract and in need of interpretation (what is good cause for regret?) that it is no wonder if beneficiaries are often unclear about what, if anything, they are obligated to do specifically.