Simmons begins his chapter on gratitude by examining its roots in ancient Greece, when it was defended by Socrates in Plato's Crito (Simmons 160). Socrates spoke of the Laws and how people ought to be grateful to the state which gave them a cultural and physical education that brought them into the world, and reared them, and gave everyone a share of all the good things at the state's disposal. Simmons comes up with five conditions which must be met to earn gratitude for beneficent acts, and gives examples of these (Simmons 170-178). The first condition is that the benefactor must have made some special effort or sacrifice, or incurred some loss in providing the benefit. The second condition is that the benefit must be intentional, that it must be given voluntarily, and that it must not have been provided out of self-interest. No debt of gratitude is earned if the benefactor bestows the benefits in order to hurt another person, or if the benefit is only incidental to the benefactor's actions.
The third condition Simmons specifies for earning gratitude is that a benefit cannot be forced upon anyone who does not want it (Simmons 175-176). The fourth condition is that the benefit which is given must be wanted in the broad sense which allows instances where an individual can be taken to want the benefit provided even though they may not expressly say so.
The fifth condition is that individuals must not want the benefit not to be provided by the benefactor (Simmons 178). For instance, an individual may not want a particular benefit because it precludes them from receiving another benefit which they would prefer, or they may simply prefer not to receive a particular benefit from the person who will be giving it, but would rather receive it from someone else.
In the political arena, the gratitude account of political obligation suggests that because we receive benefits from the government, we are obligated to repay the...