Jeff Latimer
Moral luck describes circumstances where a person is assigned moral blame or praise for an action or its consequences even though it is clear that the person did not have full control over either the action or its consequences. For example, if someone were to attempt to kill someone but fail should they still be charged with murder? An example of moral luck from my own life would be when I had a friend who was caught looking at someone else's paper during a test. Since he didn't actually get any of the answers he was judged differently. His punishment would have been more server if the teacher had realized he cheated after he had gotten the grade. The teacher had no way of knowing if he was just looking around the room or actual cheating. It would have been wrong of her to give him the same punishment unless she had some way to prove that he was cheating on the test. Unless she had empirical evidence of him cheating and getting a false grade she had to give him a less severe punishment. He could have seen someone's test but not copied the answer. I think that the teacher did the right thing by giving him a less bad punishment them he would have got if he had been proven of cheating. People can never fully understand each others intentions. In the example I gave, it would have been if the teacher had assumed his intentions. I don't think that moral luck is an ethical problem. I think that people should be held accountable for their actions more than their intentions. I do believe that the intention behind someones actions is important. However, one cannot fully know someone else's full intentions.
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteI get what you are saying here, but I think everyone knows to keep their eyes on their own paper or to look forward while simultaneously breaking during a test. I do not think this example really hit the concept of Moral Luck: of being something that you cannot control from happening. This student could've controlled the suspision of the teacher be not being susceptably looking around. Choice transpires from intentions (should I look around? No becasue it may be harmful to me, but yes because it can benefit my grade...). I have reason to believe that it was this student's intention to snoop at someone else's test and maybe because he/she was caught, they decided not to exactely copy what they saw.
Jeff, I also agree that moral luck is not a huge issue and that and you can never really know of someones intentions. Your example however was kind of hard to follow what was really going on. Maybe it was some grammar issues but don't be afraid to elaborate more. So it can make sense to everyone reading it.
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