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Much Obliged: Kantian Gratitude Reconsidere

  • Kate Moran EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: September 27, 2016

Abstract:

In his published texts and lectures on moral philosophy, Kant repeatedly singles out gratitude for discussion. Nevertheless, puzzles about the derivation, content, and nature of this duty remain. This paper seeks to solve some of these puzzles. Centrally, I argue that it is essential to attend to a distinction that Kant makes between well-wishing benevolence (Wohlwollen) and active beneficence (Wohlthun) on the part of a benefactor. On the Kantian account, I argue, a different type of gratitude is owed in response to each. With this distinction in place, I argue further that we can construct what many have thought to be missing from Kant’s discussion of gratitude – an argument explicating the precise contradiction generated by a maxim of ingratitude.

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Published Online: 2016-9-27
Published in Print: 2016-9-27

© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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