You Make Your Own Luck

Abstract

This essay takes up two questions. First, what does it mean to say that someone creates her own luck? At least colloquially speaking, luck is conceived as something out of an agent's control. So how could an agent increase or decrease the likelihood that she'll be lucky? Building on some recent work on the metaphysics of luck, the essay argues that there is a sense in which agents can create their own luck because people with more skill tend to have more opportunities to benefit from luck. Second, what implications does this conception of luck have for related topics such as how we evaluate performances (like shooting an arrow), including coming to know something? The ubiquitous presence of luck in our actions is often underappreciated. The essay argues that when we combine an expected outcomes view of luck with a counterfactual view of causation, the distinction between environmental and intervening veritic luck seems to disappear. We need a more nuanced view of how luck sometimes undermines credit for success in agents' actions. The upshot of this view is that while luck may undermine the creditworthiness of an agent's success, it only partially undermines creditworthiness.

Did Alexander Fleming Deserve the Nobel Prize?

“…68-69). 6 In this manner, it is suggested that developing certain epistemic skills increases the likelihood of becoming scientifically lucky, such as training certain virtues increases the likelihood of becoming morally lucky (Copeland 2017;McKinnon 2014). In so far as it is up to the agent to deliberately train such skills or accept certain risks when driving negligently, these freely adopted volitions constitute the basis of someone's moral standing (Concepcion 2002, p. 459).…”

“…An inherited scientific curiosity does not help one telling apart a dirty petri dish from one that contains an important antibacterial substance. These skills have to be learned and continuously trained, which requires diligence and effort (Copeland 2017;McKinnon 2014).…”

Succeeding competently: towards an anti-luck condition for achievement

“…In the ensuing decade, him and many others have proposed more or less friendly amendments, but the general model remains the same (see e.g. Turri 2011; McKinnon 2013; Littlejohn 2014; McKinnon 2014; Carter, Jarvis, and Rubin 2015; Sosa 2015; Turri 2016). According to Sosa, achievements have what he calls a ‘AAA structure’.…”

The Norms of Assertion

“…For a contemporary view on the metaphysics of luck, seeMcKinnon (2013b) andMcKinnon (2014) 7. CompareWilliamson (2000), DeRose(2002), and others.10.1057/9781137521729 -The Norms of Assertion, Rachel McKinnonCopyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com -licensed to University of Alberta -PalgraveConnect -2015-08-03…”