Gratitude to others is typically understood as a response to good things people give to us or do for us. Occasionally, though, we thank people for things other than gifts or actions. We sometimes thank people for being there for us, for instance, or for loving us, or for being good parents or teachers, or for believing in us. In this article, I develop a set of considerations to help determine whether gratitude to others for being, loving, or believing can be fitting in any of these cases. I begin by arguing that when it is appropriate for a beneficiary thank a benefactor for ϕ-ing, the beneficiary’s gratitude to the benefactor for ϕ-ing is fitting only insofar as the benefactor ϕ-ed out of benevolence, care or concern for the beneficiary. I then show that thanking can express attitudes other than gratitude, thereby highlighting the thanks-gratitude fallacy: the mistake of inferring the fittingness of one person’s gratitude to another from the fact that it would be reasonable for the former to thank the latter. These considerations imply that gratitude for being there for us, gratitude for believing in us, and gratitude for being a good professional can sometimes be fitting, while gratitude for loving us and gratitude for being a good intimate (e.g., a good parent or spouse) generally are not.

对他人的感激通常被理解为对人们给予我们或为我们做的好事的回应。不过，有时我们会感谢人们的礼物或行为以外的事情。例如，我们有时会感谢人们在我们身边，或者感谢他们爱我们，或者感谢他们成为好父母或老师，或者感谢他们相信我们。在本文中，我提出了一系列考虑因素，以帮助确定对他人的存在、爱心或信仰表示感谢是否适用于任何这些情况。我首先论证，当受益人为 ϕ-ing 致谢恩人时，受益人对恩人 ϕ-ing 的感激仅在恩人出于对受益人的仁慈、关心或关心的情况下才合适. 然后我表明感谢可以表达感激以外的态度，从而突出感谢-感恩谬误：从一个人感谢另一个人是合理的事实推断出一个人对另一个人的感激之情是错误的。这些考虑意味着，感谢陪伴我们、感谢相信我们、感谢成为一名优秀的专业人士有时可能是合适的，而感谢爱我们和感谢成为一个好亲密的人（例如，一个好父母或配偶）一般不会。