Luck Ancient and Modern

Abstract The book’s first chapter canvasses contemporary opinions about luck, including scholarly literatures on “moral luck” and “luck egalitarianism,” and it returns to Aristotelian philosophy as a starting point for a reconsideration of the idea of luck itself. The chapter begins with the observation that many contemporaries appeal to luck. Political and economic theorists have argued that luck’s unequal distributions explode “the myth of meritocracy.” For certain classicists and philosophers, including Martha Nussbaum and Bernard Williams, luck renders human goodness itself “fragile,” since bad luck can push us to do wrong. Whatever their significant differences, these contemporaries all view luck, whether good or bad, as a fundamental aspect of human experience—a phenomenon “out there” in the world. This chapter introduces the conceit of the book: luck is an idea, a mere description or explanation of action, which primarily reflects our epistemic limitations and ethical orientations. That luck exists “in speech” rather than “in deed” is an insight traced to Aristotle. After outlining Aristotle’s own conceptual vocabulary of luck, the chapter lays out the plan of the book, and it concludes with some reflections on the book’s interpretative approach.