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WHO WANTS TO BE A SAINT?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 December 2015
Abstract
Susan Wolf famously argued that a saintly life – one totally dedicated to moral concerns – would be ‘a life strangely barren’. It would mean neglecting many activities that make human life worthwhile. But her argument assumes that our moral duties are simply duties to others, that a perfectly moral person would always act selflessly. It may be, however, that we also have duties to ourselves, which include the cultivation of so-called ‘non-moral’ virtues. On this view, morality is pervasive, relating to all features of a human life, and has architectonic status, being capable of shaping all that we do.
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- Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2015
References
Notes
1 Aldous Huxley, ‘Pascal’, in Do What You Will: Essays; The Thinker's Library (London: Watts & Co., 1936), 240.
2 Ibid., 228.
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