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Full Idea
Because of moral luck, the realm of the morally praiseworthy / blameworthy is not indisputably within one's voluntary control or accessible to one's consciousness.
Gist of Idea
Moral luck means our praise and blame may exceed our control or awareness
Source
Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski (Virtues of the Mind [1996], I 4.2)
Book Ref
Zagzebski,Linda: 'Virtues of the Mind' [CUP 1996], p.70
A Reaction
[She particularly cites Thomas Nagel for this] It is a fact that we will be blamed (more strongly) when we have moral bad luck, but the question is whether we should be. It seems harsh, but you can't punish someone as if they had had bad luck.
| 269 | Attempted murder is like real murder, but we should respect the luck which avoided total ruin [Plato] |
| 14063 | Sooner a good decision going wrong, than a bad one turning out for the good [Epicurus] |
| 5126 | A carelessly thrown brick is condemned much more if it hits someone [Smith,A, by Harman] |
| 20233 | Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche] |
| 4426 | A bad result distorts one's judgement about the virtue of what one has done [Nietzsche] |
| 23282 | If all that matters in morality is motive and intention, that makes moral luck irrelevant [Williams,B] |
| 3272 | Moral luck can arise in character, preconditions, actual circumstances, and outcome [Nagel] |
| 6700 | We can't criticise people because of unforeseeable consequences [Graham] |
| 20193 | Moral luck means our praise and blame may exceed our control or awareness [Zagzebski] |