 What Ross’s theory takes for granted is that in any circumstance where one might do something out of gratitude (and similarly for all of the basic Rossian prima facie duties) the fact that the act would be an expression of gratitude is always relevant in assessing one’s moral obligations, and always counts as a favoring reason for expressing gratitude, even if in some circumstances like the one just described, it is overridden. This reveals a commitment to what is called “reasons atomism” which is opposed by holistic conceptions of reasons, our next topic.