PHIL 200 Final: Nagel Moral Luck

• School: McGill University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 200
• Professor: Emily Carson

Document Summary

In this article, nagel categorizes luck in four ways, as it defines one"s characteristics, the situations he/she is to face, the circumstances leading to his/her actions and the outcome of these actions. At this very point, nagel suggest that the intentions of one"s actions, rather than the outcome of his/her actions should be subjected to a moral judgment as he/she cannot control how his/her actions turn out. The strongest opposition to this idea, however, points out that if moral luck is true, there is only a little about one that is under his/her control. Thus, almost all moral judgments that used to make sense become irrelevant. Nevertheless, though nagel does not present a solution to the problem, his approach is mainly ethical in the sense of believing that a moral judgment cannot be concluded without taking the intentions of one"s actions into significant consideration.