THE HOLY CHARLATAN; The Dialetheism of Saintliness

‘Over the past year of researching philosophical conceptions of saintliness, I have encountered a number of seemingly meaningful contradictions. Today, I would like to run through four of the more promising cases with you, to see if we can thereby find justification for strong-dialethesim.’

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A Psychological Approach to The Philosophy of Saintliness

A Psychological Approach to The Philosophy of Saintliness:
The Work and Lives of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and James
Abstract: Philosophical characterisations of ‘the saint’ have been inexorably affected by the deep-seated psychologies of individual philosophers, to the extent that no subsequent philosophy of saintliness is complete without adequate consideration of these aspects. This thesis shall be demonstrated via [...]

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Saintliness in The Brothers Karamazov

Dostoyevsky’s masterpiece offers us, what I believe, are three possible characterisations of sainthood: Alyosha Karamazov, The Elder Zosima, and the hermit.
Although Zosima has managed to shape himself into the worthy character of the monastery’s revered Elder, we soon learn that his past was rather sordid. Indeed, it seems that this still incredibly charismatic individual was [...]

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A Sermon on Philosophical Saintliness

‘Life presses each, and every one-of-us, everyday, to make decisions of a moral bearing. Most of us, find it either, challenging, or tiring enough, dealing with these direct, and immediate dilemmas.
Saintliness seeks out, and answers, obligations, that, to-the-rest-of-us, are seemingly-remote, to our everyday lives. ‘What responsibility do I have, to the thousands,, dying unnecessarily, throughout the world?’
The saint not only acknowledges the relationship,, but moreover, acts upon it.’

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SALVATION FOR SALE

SALVATION FOR SALE: an overly limited account of consumerism in the history of Christianity.
What is this new pity of God and the pope, that for money they allow a man who is impious and their enemy to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God, and do not rather, because of [...]

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Philosophical Conceptions of Saintliness (Part 4)

‘Over the past three parts of this thesis, I have exposited and critically engaged with a number of various philosophical conceptions of saintliness. The crucial lesson to be derived from this endeavour is that, historically speaking, saintliness has been a dynamic, culturally dependent, and often problematic notion. Unfortunately, the way in which many philosophers continue to invoke the concept of saintliness as performing significant work in their philosophies, suggests that they are either unaware or neglectful of this fact. That is to say that their implicit conception of saintliness in general, is suggested to be a fixed, universally understood, and uncontentious matter. This thesis, so far, has indirectly sought to demonstrate that such an assumption is misguided. In this fourth and final part, however, I shall attempt to explicate a philosophically acceptable conception of saintliness: a characterisation that is metaphilosophically rigorous, while, at the same time, remaining true to the intrinsically dynamic and culturally dependent nature of the concept.’

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Philosophical Conceptions of Saintliness (Part 3)

‘As will become evident in this third part, Contemporary philosophical conceptions of saintliness are characterised by their essentially ethical focus. As the first philosopher to be considered in this part of the genealogy put it: “we sometimes call a person a saint, or an action saintly, using the word ‘saintly’ in a purely moral sense with no religious implications.” Indeed, since J. O. Urmson wrote these words, it seems that the once occasional, philosophical usage has now become the norm.’

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Philosophical Conceptions of Saintliness (Part 2)

‘The World as Will and Idea occasioned the advent of the Modern Era of the Philosophy of Saintliness. Whereas Pre-Modern philosophical conceptions of saintliness were dependent upon Christian conceptions, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) attempted to construct a complete, self-sustained metaphysical system to support his notion of saintliness. This project therefore is to be regarded as appropriating the concept of saintliness for Philosophy proper.’

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Philosophical Conceptions of Saintliness (Part 1)

‘It must be duly acknowledged that the etymology of the word ‘saint’ is deeply embedded in the history of Christianity. It should seem only natural, then, that the earliest philosophers to concern themselves with the phenomenon of saintliness conceived of it as essentially religious in nature. Taken from the Western canon of Philosophy, these philosophers include, though by no means exhaustively: St Augustine of Hippo, St Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, St Benedict, Meister Eckhart, Desiderius Erasmus, Martin Luther, St John of The Cross, Voltaire, and David Hume.
It is the contention of Part One of this thesis that these philosophers and their conceptions of saintliness constitute, what I shall call, The Pre-Modern Era of The Philosophy of Saintliness. This era of The Philosophy of Saintliness is characterised by its utter dependence upon Christian conceptions.’

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Philosophical Conceptions of Saintliness (Intro.)

‘When one takes into account both that Ethics constitutes one of the principal schools of Philosophy, and that saints are commonly regarded as embodying the epitome of moral righteousness, it should come as little surprise that, throughout the history of Western Philosophy, a great many philosophers have made significant use of the concept of saintliness in their work. As the discipline of Philosophy has evolved, so too has the concept of saintliness and what can be legitimately said of it, philosophically speaking.
The task of this thesis, then, is to advance the philosophical notion of saintliness one step further.’

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