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Gratitude over Existence

Mon, December 17, 5:00 to 6:30pm, Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center, Skyline Room

Abstract

Contemporary analytical philosophy generally views gratitude over existence as illogical. Although analytical philosophy’s past ignoring of gratitude, as an ethic, has been somewhat corrected in recent years, most philosophers view the non-identity problem as a sufficiently conclusive disproof of any such ethic relating to one’s very existence. These tendencies are directed by a person-affecting conception of ethics, according to which beneficent creation is considered paradoxical. This discussion ignores the centrality of gratitude over existence in theology and philosophy, from the Talmud to Emmanuel Kant (Lectures on Ethics 219-22).
In the Talmud, obligations of respect to parents are compared to those due God, on account of their common basis in (pro)creation (BT, Kiddushin 30b). Elsewhere, gratitude over creation is made explicit, though fleetingly (BT, Sota 40a). Medieval theology employs these ideas methodically. For some theologians, beneficent creation is the ultimate expression of God’s infinite beneficence, and gratitude over existence is consequently the centerpiece of humanity’s relationship to God.
Augustine (Confessions 13:2) already considered our creation from non-existence, notwithstanding our futility to benefit in exchange, a central expression of God’s goodness, our obligation to consecrate our lives to God being its proper response (ibid., 13:4). R. Saadya Gaon similarly asserts the rational basis of service, adding to it the obligation of gratitude over being created (Beliefs and Opinions 3:1). R. Bahya Ibn Pequda develops the connection to gratitude further, making awareness of God’s beneficence in our creation a centerpiece of the Divine-human relationship, requiring of gratitude (Duties of Hearts 3:intr.,3). Bahya first configures discussion of God’s beneficence within an analysis of gratitude generally, thus developing it as an ethical conception. He then turns gratitude into a basis for duty, centralizing its religious imperative.
Bahya’s argumentation intimates that all theological explanations of creation in terms of Divine necessity or desire to be beneficent in actuality (a common trope) suggest a relationship of gratitude over existence. However, the contemporary relevance of this theological conception is wider than its affects upon the ethic of gratitude. The conviction that creation is itself beneficence clashes with current ethical conventional conceptions, with relevance to intergenerational ethics, bioethics, and the law.

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