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Full Idea
'Luck' is loose shorthand. It stands for various causal chains that intersect and whose intersection we can neither predict nor explain, because we lack the relevant knowledge.
Gist of Idea
'Luck' is the unpredictable and inexplicable intersection of causal chains
Source
John Kekes (The Human Condition [2010], 01.2)
Book Ref
Kekes,John: 'The Human Condition' [OUP 2010], p.13
A Reaction
Aristotle's example is a chance meeting in the market place. The point about 'intersection' seems good, since luck doesn't seem to arise for an event in isolation.
| 13106 | Maybe there is no pure chance; a man's choices cause his chance meetings [Aristotle] |
| 13108 | Chance is a coincidental cause among events involving purpose and choice [Aristotle] |
| 13110 | Intrinsic cause is prior to coincidence, so nature and intelligence are primary causes, chance secondary [Aristotle] |
| 2215 | There is no such thing as chance [Hume] |
| 14804 | Is chance just unknown laws? But the laws operate the same, whatever chance occurs [Peirce] |
| 19252 | Objective chance is the property of a distribution [Peirce] |
| 23900 | Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together [Weil] |
| 15560 | We can explain a chance event, but can never show why some other outcome did not occur [Lewis] |
| 20146 | 'Luck' is the unpredictable and inexplicable intersection of causal chains [Kekes] |
| 19671 | The idea of chance relies on unalterable physical laws [Meillassoux] |