Overview

In Philosophies of Gratitude, Ashraf H. A. Rushdy explores gratitude as a philosophical concept. The first half of the book traces its significance in fundamental Western moral philosophy and notions of ethics, specifically examining key historical moments and figures in classical antiquity, the early modern era, and the Enlightenment. In the second half of the book, Rushdy focuses on contemporary meanings of gratitude as a sentiment, action, and disposition: how we feel grateful, act grateful, and cultivate grateful being. He identifies these three forms of gratitude to discern various roles our emotions play in our ethical responses to the world around us. Rushdy then discusses how ingratitude, instead of indicating a moral failure, can also act as an important principle and ethical stand against injustice. Rushdy asserts that if we practice gratitude as a moral recognition of the other, then that gratitude varies alongside the different kinds of benefactors who receive it, ranging from the person who provides an expected service or gift, to the divine or natural sources whom we may credit with our very existence. By arguing for the necessity of analyzing gratitude as a philosophical concept, Rushdy reminds us of our capacity and appreciation for gratitude simply as an acknowledgment and acceptance of our humble dependency on and connectedness with our families, friends, communities, environments, and universe.

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9780197526866

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Ashraf Rushdy's Philosophies of Gratitude is a wonderful book with an extraordinary combination of historical erudition, literary and exegetical mastery, and philosophical insight. There really is nothing else like it on the subject. --Stephen Darwall, Yale University Ashraf Rushdy has produced an elegantly written, all-sided examination of gratitude, surveying the history of philosophical interpretations and exhibiting the multiple dimensions of gratitude as a sentiment, action, and disposition or form of being. This is simply the best book I have read on gratitude, and why it remains crucial to our lives today. --David Konstan, New York University Rushdy's wide-ranging study explores both historical and contemporary philosophical understandings of gratitude. Rushdy highlights tensions in our thinking of gratitude as sentiment, as a practice, and as a way of a being, and he offers a subtle philosophical model to encompass the best of each. His Philosophies of Gratitude is highly recommended as a richly informative and engagingly written investigation of a topic that has long been understudied in moral philosophy. --Thomas E. Hill, Jr., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill In this beautiful, humane, and learned book, Ashraf Rushdy distinguishes gratitude understood as a burden-dispelling transaction of 'economic' justice from gratitude as a sentiment that binds us to one another by ties of affection and recognition of mutual dependence. --Robert C. Roberts, Baylor University

In this beautiful, humane, and learned book, Ashraf Rushdy distinguishes gratitude understood as a burden-dispelling transaction of 'economic' justice from gratitude as a sentiment that binds us to one another by ties of affection and recognition of mutual dependence. * Robert C. Roberts, Baylor University * Rushdy's wide-ranging study explores both historical and contemporary philosophical understandings of gratitude. Rushdy highlights tensions in our thinking of gratitude as sentiment, as a practice, and as a way of a being, and he offers a subtle philosophical model to encompass the best of each. His Philosophies of Gratitude is highly recommended as a richly informative and engagingly written investigation of a topic that has long been understudied in moral philosophy. * Thomas E. Hill, Jr., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill * Ashraf Rushdy has produced an elegantly written, all-sided examination of gratitude, surveying the history of philosophical interpretations and exhibiting the multiple dimensions of gratitude as a sentiment, action, and disposition or form of being. This is simply the best book I have read on gratitude, and why it remains crucial to our lives today. * David Konstan, New York University * Ashraf Rushdy's Philosophies of Gratitude is a wonderful book with an extraordinary combination of historical erudition, literary and exegetical mastery, and philosophical insight. There really is nothing else like it on the subject. * Stephen Darwall, Yale University *

Author Information

Ashraf H. A. Rushdy is the Benjamin Waite Professor of the English Language at Wesleyan University. He is the author of After Injury: A Historical Anatomy of Forgiveness, Resentment, and Apology (OUP 2018) and Neo-Slave Narratives: Studies in the Social Logic of a Literary Form (OUP 1999).

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