Moral luck

Moral luck is the influence of factors beyond an agent’s control on the moral judgment of that agent or their actions. It challenges the idea that people should be judged only for what they control.

Moral responsibility: The condition of being appropriately subject to moral praise or blame for conduct. Moral luck asks whether responsibility can vary with factors beyond an agent’s control.
Resultant moral luck: Moral luck arising from outcomes that depend partly on factors beyond an agent’s control. Different consequences can produce different judgments of otherwise similar conduct.
Bernard Williams: A British philosopher whose work addressed ethics, political thought, and the limits of moral theory. His 1976 essay introduced moral luck as a challenge to ethical theories demanding control.
Kantian ethics: An ethical theory holding that moral duties arise from rational principles binding independently of consequences. Its emphasis on intention and duty limits the role of chance outcomes in moral worth.
Thomas Nagel’s moral luck examples: Thought experiments in which chance changes the circumstances or outcomes of morally similar actions. Nagel uses cases such as the negligent driver to expose outcome-sensitive judgment.
Control principle: The principle that people should be morally assessed only for what is under their control. Moral luck appears to conflict with this standard of moral assessment.
Circumstantial moral luck: Moral luck arising from the situations and pressures an agent happens to face. People may be judged for choices that chance circumstances made possible.
Thomas Nagel: An American philosopher known for work on consciousness, ethics, and political philosophy. His 1979 essay systematized the paradox and distinguished several forms of moral luck.
Consequentialism: An ethical theory that evaluates actions by the value of their consequences. Its outcome-focused assessments make resultant moral luck especially pressing.
Negligent driver: A driver who carelessly endangers others, with harm depending partly on chance. A fatal accident and a near miss often draw different blame despite similar negligence.

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