Introduction to Ethics
Lecture 10
Susan Wolf & Moral Saints
By David Kelsey
What is a moral saint?
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What is a moral saint?
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A person whose every action is as morally good as is possible.
A person who is as morally worthy as can be.
One whose life is dominated by a commitment to improving the welfare of others or of
society as a whole.
“…a moral saint must have and cultivate those qualities which are apt to allow him to
treat others as justly and kindly as possible. He will have the standard moral virtues to
a nonstandard degree. He will be patient, considerate, even-tempered, hospitable,
charitable in thought as well as in deed. He will be very reluctant to make negative
judgments of other people. He will be careful not to favor some people over others on
the basis of properties they could not help but have.” (791)
The Loving Saint
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The Loving Saint:
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A moral saint out of love.
A moral saint whose concern for others plays the role that is played in most of our lives
by more selfish, less morally worthy concerns.
The happiness of the loving saint lies in the happiness of others…
The promotion of the welfare of others would play the role that for most of us is played
by the enjoyment of material comforts, the opportunity to engage in the intellectual and
physical activities of our choice, and the love, respect, and companionship of people
whom we love, respect, and enjoy. (791)
The Rational Saint
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The Rational Saint:
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Derives his happiness in all the things the rest of us derive happiness from.
But he pays little or no attention to his own happiness in light of the overriding
importance he gives to the wider concerns of morality.
Sacrifices his own interests to the interests of others. And he feels the sacrifice as
such. (791)
Problems for the Moral Saint
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Why the moral saint is problematic:
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In Wolf’s words “…I believe that moral perfection, in the sense of moral saintliness,
does not constitute a model of personal well-being toward which it would be particularly
rational or good or desirable for a human being to strive.” (790)
– So for Wolf, a moral saint is too morally good for his own well being.
This is because:
• The moral virtues are all present in the same individual and to an extreme degree.
Thus they “are apt to crowd out the nonmoral virtues, as well as many of the
interests and personal characteristics that we generally think contribute to a
healthy, well rounded, richly developed character.” (792)
• Thus, if the moral saint is devoting all his time to helping others he won’t have any
time to devote to himself.
– “…if the moral saint is devoting all his time to feeding the hungry or healing the sick or
raising money for Oxfam, then necessarily he is not reading Victorian novels, playing the
oboe, or improving his backhand…” (792)
Ways the moral saint must be
and ways he mustn’t be
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Ways the moral saint cannot be:
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He cannot encourage the discovery and development of significant non-moral interests
and skills.
He cannot encourage in himself any non-moral characteristics that go against the
“moral grain”. For example:
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A cynical or sarcastic wit…
An interest in gourmet cooking, high fashion…
Ways the moral saint must be:
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Should try to look for the best in people, giving them the benefit of the doubt as long as
possible.
He should try to improve regrettable situations as long as there is hope of success.
He will have to be very very nice. He must not be offensive. Thus, he might be dull
witted…
There is a limit to how much
morality we can stand
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There seems to be a limit to how much morality we can stand:
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Characters we take as moral ideals always have talents or accomplishments in nonmoral respects as well.
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Katherine Hepburn’s grace
Paul Newman’s cool
Looking for moral ideals in individuals, we look for people whose moral achievements
occur in conjunction with or colored by some interests or traits that have low moral
tone. (793)
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When we look at lives dominated by moral commitments we are relieved to discover
idiosyncrasies or eccentricities not quite in line with moral perfection. (792)
Preferring the blunt, tactless, and opinionated Betsy Trotwood to the unfailingly kind and patient
Agnes Copperfield.
One prefers the mischievousness and the sense of irony in Chesterton’s Father Brown to the
innocence and undiscriminating love of St. Francis.
The Moral Saint lacks
an identifiable, personal self
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Morality doesn’t seem a suitable object for passion:
– The desire to be as morally good as possible is apt to have the character
not just of a stronger but of a higher desire, which subsumes or demeans
every other desire.
– “The normal person’s direct and specific desires for objects, activities, and
events that conflict with the attainment of moral perfection are not simply
sacrificed but removed, suppressed, or subsumed.
• The Loving saint might give up his fishing trip, his stereo or his hot fudge sundae
at the drop of a moral hat. But then how much does he really love these things?
• And the Rational Saint might have the desire for to fish or to eat the hot fudge
sundae but he forgoes any such desire.
– So the way in which morality would dominate the moral saint’s life
requires either the lack or the denial of the existence of an identifiable,
personal self.
Concerns about Morality
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Concerns about morality:
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Is it always better to be morally better?
Wolf’s argument seems to suggest the answer is NO.
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Wolf’s point:
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Other values besides morality (for example, an interest in the arts or sports,) are important.
The question then is which values are most important and how do we attain the right balance of
moral and non-moral values in our lives?
So maybe we don’t want a theory of morality that is focused on ‘Good’ and ‘Right’.
Maybe instead we want a set of principles that allows us more freedom to develop nonmoral values.
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A theory that will give us “…principles, or, at least, informal directives on the basis of which we
can develop and evaluate more comprehensive personal ideals. Perhaps a theory that
distinguishes among the various roles a person is expected to play within a life.” (801)