The Paradox of Gratitude.

Since gratitude is a significant pro-social quality or virtue, it might be (and has been) considered of some educational concern. However, while it clearly needs to be understood as a response that is in some sense required or owed towards benefactors, gratitude would hardly seem genuine unless it is freely and perhaps joyfully given – perhaps on the basis of some specific grateful emotion. Despite some academic appreciation of tension between these aspects of gratitude, the psychological and normative implications of what we shall call here the ‘paradox of gratitude’ for its learning or acquisition have been less thoroughly explored. Following some consideration of rival educational perspectives on this tension, this article argues that the best route to its resolution may be to surrender the idea of a distinct pro-social emotion or sentiment of gratitude. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]