In Defense of Moral Luck

In Defense of Moral Luck PDF Author: Robert J. Hartman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351866877
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book

Book Description
The problem of moral luck is that there is a contradiction in our common sense ideas about moral responsibility. In one strand of our thinking, we believe that a person can become more blameworthy by luck. For example, two reckless drivers manage their vehicles in the same way, and one but not the other kills a pedestrian. We blame the killer driver more than the merely reckless driver, because we believe that the killer driver is more blameworthy. Nevertheless, this idea contradicts another feature of our thinking captured in this moral principle: A person’s blameworthiness cannot be affected by that which is not within her control. Thus, our ordinary thinking about moral responsibility implies that the drivers are and are not equally blameworthy. In Defense of Moral Luck aims to make progress in resolving this contradiction. Hartman defends the claim that certain kinds of luck in results, circumstance, and character can partially determine the degree of a person’s blameworthiness. He also explains why there is a puzzle in our thinking about moral responsibility in the first place if luck often affects a person’s praiseworthiness and blameworthiness. Furthermore, the book’s methodology provides a unique way to advance the moral luck debate with arguments from diverse areas in philosophy that do not bottom out in standard pro-moral luck intuitions.

In Defense of Moral Luck

In Defense of Moral Luck PDF Author: Robert J. Hartman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351866877
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book

Book Description
The problem of moral luck is that there is a contradiction in our common sense ideas about moral responsibility. In one strand of our thinking, we believe that a person can become more blameworthy by luck. For example, two reckless drivers manage their vehicles in the same way, and one but not the other kills a pedestrian. We blame the killer driver more than the merely reckless driver, because we believe that the killer driver is more blameworthy. Nevertheless, this idea contradicts another feature of our thinking captured in this moral principle: A person’s blameworthiness cannot be affected by that which is not within her control. Thus, our ordinary thinking about moral responsibility implies that the drivers are and are not equally blameworthy. In Defense of Moral Luck aims to make progress in resolving this contradiction. Hartman defends the claim that certain kinds of luck in results, circumstance, and character can partially determine the degree of a person’s blameworthiness. He also explains why there is a puzzle in our thinking about moral responsibility in the first place if luck often affects a person’s praiseworthiness and blameworthiness. Furthermore, the book’s methodology provides a unique way to advance the moral luck debate with arguments from diverse areas in philosophy that do not bottom out in standard pro-moral luck intuitions.

In Defense of Moral Luck

In Defense of Moral Luck PDF Author: Robert J. Hartman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351866885
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 163

Get Book

Book Description
Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Introducing the Problem of Moral Luck -- 2 The Concept of Moral Luck -- 3 Against the Skeptical Denial of Moral Luck -- 4 Against the Non-skeptical Denial of Moral Luck -- 5 In Defense of Moral Luck -- 6 Error Theory for the Luck-Free Intuition -- Index

Strokes of Luck

Strokes of Luck PDF Author: Gerald Lang
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192639021
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book

Book Description
Strokes of Luck provides a detailed and wide-ranging examination of the role of luck in moral and political philosophy. The first part tackles debates in moral luck, which are concerned with the assignment of blameworthiness to individuals who are separated only by lucky differences. 'Anti-luckists' think that one who, for example, attempts and succeeds in an assassination and one who attempts and fails are equally blameworthy. This book defends an anti-anti-luckist argument, according to which the successful assassin is more blameworthy than the unsuccessful one. Moreover, the successful assassin is, all things equal, a worse person than the unsuccessful one. The worldly outcomes of our acts can make an all-important difference, not only to how bad our acts can be deemed, but to how bad we are. The second part enters into debates about distributive justice. Lang argues that the attempt to neutralize luck in the distribution of advantages among individuals does not deserve its prominence in political philosophy: the 'luck egalitarian' programme is flawed. A better way forward is to re-invest in John Rawls's 'justice as fairness', which demonstrates a superior way of taming the bad effects of luck and unchosen disadvantage.

Justice, Luck, and Knowledge

Justice, Luck, and Knowledge PDF Author: Susan L. Hurley
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674017702
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book

Book Description
Key contemporary discussions of distributive justice have formulated egalitarian approaches in terms of responsibility. But this approach, Hurley contends, has ignored the way our understanding of responsibility constrains the roles it can actually play within distributive justice.

Moral Luck

Moral Luck PDF Author: Bernard Williams
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107268176
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 154

Get Book

Book Description
A new volume of philosophical essays by Bernard Williams. The book is a successor to Problems of the Self, but whereas that volume dealt mainly with questions of personal identity, Moral Luck centres on questions of moral philosophy and the theory of rational action. That whole area has of course been strikingly reinvigorated over the last deacde, and philosophers have both broadened and deepened their concerns in a way that now makes much earlier moral and political philosophy look sterile and trivial. Moral Luck contains a number of essays that have contributed influentially to this development. Among the recurring themes are the moral and philosophical limitations of utilitarianism, the notion of integrity, relativism, and problems of moral conflict and rational choice. The work presented here is marked by a high degree of imagination and acuity, and also conveys a strong sense of psychological reality. The volume will be a stimulating source of ideas and arguments for all philosophers and a wide range of other readers.

Free Will and Luck

Free Will and Luck PDF Author: Alfred R. Mele
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195374398
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Get Book

Book Description
Aiming to help readers think more clearly about free will, Mele identifies the conceptual obstacles to justified belief in the existence of free will. He also attempts to clarify the central issue in the philosophical debate about free will & moral responsibility, & criticizes various influential contemporary theories about free will.

Mortal Questions (Canto Classics)

Mortal Questions (Canto Classics) PDF Author: Thomas Nagel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107604710
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book

Book Description
Preface Sources 1 Death 2 The absurd 3 Moral luck 4 Sexual perversion 5 War and massacre 6 Ruthlessness in public life 7 The policy of preference 8 Equality 9 The fragmentation of value 10 Ethics without biology 11 Brain bisection and the unity of consciousness 12 What is it like to be a bat? 13 Panpsychism 14 Subjective and objective Index.

The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Psychology of Luck

The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Psychology of Luck PDF Author: Ian M. Church
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351258745
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 470

Get Book

Book Description
Luck permeates our lives, and this raises a number of pressing questions: What is luck? When we attribute luck to people, circumstances, or events, what are we attributing? Do we have any obligations to mitigate the harms done to people who are less fortunate? And to what extent is deserving praise or blame affected by good or bad luck? Although acquiring a true belief by an uneducated guess involves a kind of luck that precludes knowledge, does all luck undermine knowledge? The academic literature has seen growing, interdisciplinary interest in luck, and this volume brings together and explains the most important areas of this research. It consists of 39 newly commissioned chapters, written by an internationally acclaimed team of philosophers and psychologists, for a readership of students and researchers. Its coverage is divided into six sections: I: The History of Luck II: The Nature of Luck III: Moral Luck IV: Epistemic Luck V: The Psychology of Luck VI: Future Research. The chapters cover a wide range of topics, from the problem of moral luck, to anti-luck epistemology, to the relationship between luck attributions and cognitive biases, to meta-questions regarding the nature of luck itself, to a range of other theoretical and empirical questions. By bringing this research together, the Handbook serves as both a touchstone for understanding the relevant issues and a first port of call for future research on luck.

Epistemic Luck

Epistemic Luck PDF Author: Duncan Pritchard
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019928038X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book

Book Description
Offering a philosophical examination of the concept of luck and its relationship to knowledge, this text demonstrates how a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between knowledge and luck can enable us to see past some of the most intractable disputes in the contemporary theory of knowledge.

Moral Luck

Moral Luck PDF Author: Daniel Statman
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791415399
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book

Book Description
Luck plays a part in determining our judgments and in causing us to question our notions of morality. Should a successful murderer be punished more severely than an unsuccessful one? Should a person be praised for his fine moral character which was a consequence of his good luck in being born into a certain kind of family, in particular historical circumstances? These questions and other ideas are discussed in this book by leading philosophers including: Bernard Williams, Thomas Nagel, Martha C. Nussbaum, Don Levi, Judith Andre, Henning Jensen, Nicholas Rescher, Norvin Richards, Steven Sverdlik, Judith Jarvis Thomson, Michael J. Zimmerman, and Margaret U. Walker. The reader is stimulated to reflect on his or her basic notions of morality, especially those of responsibility, agency, and justification.