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'Gratitude' or 'thankfulness' sound like they'd induce more humility than 'appreciation'. To appreciate can mean to understand or recognize. Art appreciation d

'Gratitude' or 'thankfulness' sound like they'd induce more humility than 'appreciation'. To appreciate can mean to understand or recognize. Art appreciation doesn't quite mean gratitude towards art, as far as I can see. Consider, 'I am grateful for the grace of God' or 'I am grateful that fate has spared us'. Then try, 'I appreciate the grace of God' or 'I appreciate that fate has spared us'. Appreciate sounds almost haughty and egocentric in comparison. If I appreciate my food the focus can still be on me, maybe I can even relish how my oh-so sophisticated palate is able to extract wonders from the food, indeed how amazingly I'm able to appreciate the overall art of cuisine (or anything else). If I am 'grateful' for the food, such a stance seems difficult. It's hard or silly to think of oneself as excelling in gratitude. Of course it can be done (and is always annoying to witness) but it seems harder to keep up as it's more obviously self-contradicting than garden-variety egotism. So it seems that 'gratitude' suggests a more measured relationship between object and subject, and does a better job encouraging humility.

sridca 7y ago
Good response, I agree. Except of course for the connecting of appreciation and egocentrism. I can appreciate eating a delicious croissant, for example, savouring its buttery flavours as experienced on the tongue without egotistically thinking of "my" oh-so sophisticated palate. Moreover the word "appreciation" does not necessarily imply selfish thinking of any such sort. Of course gratitude is not taught in such "mundane" contexts of sensately enjoying eating a croissant. It is always about some "higher" things like God or your childhood hurt memories or "food" (as nourishment rather than sensory pleasure). And humility is a core part of gratitude. Yet humility exists to counter pride (one can't help but be proud of being humble.). Humility and pride are two sides of the same coin, and appreciation has got nothing necessarily to do with either of them.

sridca 7y ago

Good response, I agree. Except of course for the connecting of appreciation and egocentrism. I can appreciate eating a delicious croissant, for example, savouring its buttery flavours as experienced on the tongue without egotistically thinking of "my" oh-so sophisticated palate. Moreover the word "appreciation" does not necessarily imply selfish thinking of any such sort. Of course gratitude is not taught in such "mundane" contexts of sensately enjoying eating a croissant. It is always about some "higher" things like God or your childhood hurt memories or "food" (as nourishment rather than sensory pleasure). And humility is a core part of gratitude. Yet humility exists to counter pride (one can't help but be proud of being humble.). Humility and pride are two sides of the same coin, and appreciation has got nothing necessarily to do with either of them.