Moral Luck
Very often as children we are set up for a fall … the downtrodden skivvy marries the prince, the wicked stepmother is defeated by the fairy godmother, etc. I’m sure you get my drift. The general moral of the story is that the ‘Goodies’ always defeat the ‘Baddies’. And how many of us, who are parents, are guilty of saying, ‘If you’re a good girl/boy
... See moreDerren Brown • Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine
There can be something cruel about people who have had good fortune. They equate it with personal goodness.
Ann Patchett • This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
Novelist Marilynne Robinson on how to handle good luck:
"I can only make sense of my unaccountable good fortune by assuming that it means I am under special obligation to make good use of it."
James Clear • 3-2-1: Two Steps for Better Results, the Qualities of a Great Career, and How to Handle Good Luck
But for our commonsense notions of human agency and morality to hold, it seems that our actions cannot be merely lawful products of our biology, our conditioning, or anything else that might lead others to predict them.