Analysis of Moral Luck Views of Aristotle and Epictetus

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Analysis of Moral Luck Views of Aristotle and Epictetus

Aristotle, the founder of western science, and Epictetus, one of the

greatest stoicists, both has their theories for the issue of "Moral

Luck". To have a basic idea about the topic, I believe we should

describe it from a non-philosophical point of view. After doing that

we can compare both Aristotle's and Epictetus' points of views and

distinguish between them with examples from "Into Thin Air"(ITA),

written by Jon Krakauer.

Moral Luck, if described from general perspective, consists of the

actions that happen by luck and result in moral ends. What I mean by

moral ends is the situations that have something to do with moral or

ethical values. Overall, moral luck deals with all the issues

concerned with assertion of praise and blame, deliberation of

responsibility, and things that are not in our control such as place

of birth, our parents, our nationality and so on. Although they both

have this structure in common, both Aristotle and Epictetus have

different arguments about moral luck.

Both Aristotle and Epictetus have a single point in common. They both

have the idea of luck. Aristotle describes this as things that are not

in our control and Epictetus describes this as things that are not up

to us.

The distinction between them is simple. Something that is not in our

control can be up to us. However, something that is up to us must be

in our control. "One climber's actions can affect the welfare of the

entire team. The consequences of a poorly tied knot, a stumble, a

dislodged rock, or some other careless deed are as likely to be felt

by the perpetrator's colleagues...

... middle of paper ...

...g so, he tries to control things that are not

up to him. If you want something that is not up to you and do not get

it, you are misfortunate then. Rob Hall is misfortunate here then.

Also, Rob Hall's judgment of the current situation was blurred. He was

not thinking properly, therefore not judging properly. All of these

facts considered, Rob Hall, in this case, is responsible for his

actions.

Now that we examined both Aristotle's and Epictetus' perspectives, we

can make a distinction between them. Aristotle is dealing with

everyday philosophy and has a less strict perspective. On the other

hand, Epictetus is a philosopher who is dealing with disastrous

situations and has a strict perspective when compared to Aristotle.

Both of their philosophies have a common base, idea of luck, but have

a different continuation.

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