Short Story Moral Luck

Moral luck is whether an individual should be praised or blamed due to external conditions outside of their’s control. We have no control over the situation at all when moral luck is involved. A personal example of moral luck from my experience is from high school. I turned 17 and just got my license a month later. I was excited to legally drive without my parents needing to be in the car. I called a friend and she drove to my location to meet up. We both set out to go somewhere, but took separate cars. I was driving 65 in a 45 and my friend was trying to catch up to me. I notice a deer in the woods so I quickly switched lanes, but unfortunately my friend didn't see the deer and she ended up smacking him head on. I believe that to be completely moral luck because there was nothing stopping that deer from appearing from the woods a few seconds earlier, which would have made me smack him. It was unfortunate for my friend.

 

 

I don’t believe moral luck to be a serious ethical problem because we are not in full control of what the world has to offer. Anything can change in a split second, and who’s to say a person is supposed take blame or praise for something they didn't know was going to happen. If someone was to know every outcome to a situation, where does the moral luck factor come in? In a different perspective, say someone robbed a bank. The gun goes off accidentally and misses the teller by inches. He runs, but eventually is caught and hit with attempted murder along with other charges. Who’s to say he was trying to kill the teller rather than intimidate her with the gun itself? He could be praised that he did not kill her and would be serving less time rather than being punished more severely because the bullet hit her straight on. Morally, it is still wrong to do that but it is based on moral luck that he did not kill her.