Moral Luck

Moral Luck Presented by Mitchell Reller

Is morality immune to luck? Or is luck embedded into our legal and moral assessments? Often we praise and blame people based on factors outside of their control. Discussing moral luck can help us identify a tension that develops between our moral intuitions and our commitment to an equitable system of moral accountability. I will attempt to define moral luck, illustrate how its a problem, talk about different kinds of moral luck, and review positions we can take that attack or defend our moral intuitions. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine]

Immanuel Kant, Thomas Nagel

Control Principle: A person can only be praised or blamed for what is under her or his control.

Corollary Control Principle: Two people ought not to be morally assessed differently if the only other differences between them are due to factors beyond their control.

John forgets to buckle in his child and gets into an accident where the child dies.

Sally forgets to buckle in her child and nothing happens and the child lives.

Should we hold Sally as morally accountable as John?

DUIs?

Can someone be held morally responsible for circumstances such as how one was raised and the resulting beliefs? (E.g. a child of a slave owner would be raised believing slavery is okay, can that child be held morally responsible? How about a Nazi soldier who was following directions?)

We take luck in this case to mean something out of our control

So are we morally responsible for our luck?

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