Moral luck is a term used by Nagel to describe the external factors beyond our control, which act upon moral decisions we make. Nagel's opinion is that people make moral decisions that may have good or bad intentions, but because of moral luck the outcome may be contrary to what he/she intended. Moral luck can be constitutive, the kind of person that someone is. Some people are born with certain characteristics, which enable them to be more virtuous then others. Others are born with a nasty streak of envy or jealousy, which makes it that much harder for them to make moral decisions. Another type of moral luck is one's circumstances. People are faced with different types of situations and problems, and certain situations make is easier to make the right moral decision. Nagel also describes two types of consequential lucks. One type is antecedent, in which certain consequences took place before the moral act and influence the moral decision to be made. The other type o!
f consequential luck is the way actions and decisions
Utilitarianism or Consequentalism seem better suited to account for the importance of moral luck. Utilitarians determine what actions to take based on the greatest amount of pleasure that will come out of these actions. This takes into account what the consequences of actions will be and not the original intentions. However, this theory still does not take into account external forces, which cannot be predetermined. The best way to account for moral luck is judge people by taking into account their intentions and the consequences, which may follow. We can only judge to a certain degree since as humans we do not have the capacity to know people's intentions nor can we know the future to determine
A Kantian moral outlook appears to deny the relevance of moral luck because Kant judges actions on the will alone. "Even if it should happen that, by a particular unfortunate fate....and even if the greatest effort should not avail it to achieve anything...as something that had its full worth in itself." Consequences of actions are not important to a Kantian. Only
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