Wolf defines a saint as "a person whose morally action is morally good as a possible, a person that is, who is as morally worthy as can be." Although such an idea is worth striving for, Wolf argues that moral sainthood is not an attractive ideal. Wolf also discusses two kinds of saints: the living saint and the rational saint. The loving saint is a saint who acts as a utilitarian idealist whose well-being is primarily concerned with others'. The rational saint is a saint whose characteristic pays little attention to their happiness but instead attaches importance to morality's concerns. The rational saints are committed to primarily doing their moral duty for the sake of doing their duties. In layman's terms, rational saints retain non-moral and selfish desires but do not act on them due to the sainthood duties.
Saints have many non-moral goods in which they would fail or be unwilling to partake. Wolf also argues that saints can be boring, humorless individuals who are blunt and no fun since they cannot enjoy life; they also have very nice personas that appear dull-witted. They also have no time for leisure activities such as sports, music, literature, and make life seem very barren. Wolf also worries that moral saints cannot conduct their life to develop normal behavior since they lack personal interest, project, and fail to make special relationships.
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Utilitarians are drawn to loving saints, and Kantians are drawn to rational saints (Skácelová, 2019). Utilitarianism, as Wolf argues, does not support moral sainthood as a universal ideal. She is unconvinced with the world's state that it would be best to promote total happiness since humans care for themselves. The utilitarian saint is seen as one who values projects and talents or relationships as they bring happiness and would trade that for other projects, talents, or relationships if they brought more happiness. Kantianism also emphasizes the requirement to take up others' ends as their own and perfect oneself, thus denying the individual time to develop talents, relationships, or projects. Given that sainthood is good, it is not practical and should not be wished upon on friends, children, or oneself. Wolf concludes by saying that morality should only take up a limited role in one's life.
References
Skácelová, A. (2019). Should We All Be Moral Saints?
