Strokes of Luck

Gerald Lang examines the role of luck in moral and political philosophy. He argues that luck plays a positive role in determining the moral character of acts and also of agents. In political questions of justice, he argues against attempts to neutralize luck, and in favour of an alternative approach that emphasizes fairness.

Gerald Lang was born and raised in London, and pursued his studies in Bristol and then Oxford. He has held posts at Reading, Oxford, and Leeds, where he now works as Associate Professor of Philosophy. He has very broad interests in moral and political philosophy. He is now working on a project on self-defence, deontology, and war.

Introduction
Part I: Luck and Blameworthiness
1: What Results from Resultant Luck?
2: Resultant Luck and the Irrelevance Intuition
3: Resultant Luck and the Fairness Intuition
4: Restraining Situational Luck
5: Gauguin s Lucky Escape
Part II: Luck and Justice
6: Justice, Luck, and Pairwise Comparisons
7: What is Arbitrary about Moral Arbitrariness?
8: Justice and Arbitrary Boundaries
Appendix I: An Empirical Challenge to Resultant Luck
Appendix II: Zimmerman on Freedom, Control, and Luck