Moral Luck

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Luck is a constant in human existence: serendipitous meetings, one-in-a-million accidents, lottery winnings, surprise inheritances. At times it feels as though one's life is just a series of rolls of the dice. But just what is luck, and what should we make of its ubiquity? Are we only responsible for what we control? Do we only deserve what we have gained through skill or virtue? Or is our possession of skills and virtues, too, a matter of luck? Can we know things that could easily have been different? Are we justified in believing things that unluckily turn out to be false? Are we morally better than the people we might have been if we'd been born in a different time or place? As we consider these questions, we will investigate some foundational philosophical issues that turn out to have surprising (or not so surprising) connections to luck.