Luck,Virtue And Good Human Life ——On The Possibility Of "Ethical Luck"

Bernard Williams uses “moral luck” as a “weapon” to criticize modern moral philosophy,aiming to make the study theme of ethics return to “how should one live”from “how should agent act”.However,the discussion on moral luck is always confined in the framework of modern moral philosophy,which makes it difficult for moral luck to accomplish its theoretical aim.At the same time,in the discussion of virtue theories,luck has the possibility of being regarded as “ethical luck” with a broader connotation.Different from moral luck,ethical luck refers to the contingency in ethical life which involves but cannot be controlled by human beings.Ethical luck has many influences on virtue theories and their aims,and virtue theories have them own responses to these influences since the beginning of ancient Greece.In contemporary virtue theories,“virtue” and “good human life” are also two key concepts as same as the classical virtue theories.Alasdair Macintyre added a kind of socially historical attribute to the definition of virtue and practice.Rosalind Hursthouse proposed the virtue rule,developed a kind of normativity of virtue theory,and expounded the objectivity of virtue on the basis of naturalism.Julia Annas believes that virtue is similar to craft.The successful or unsuccessful practices only increase or decrease the virtue rather than destroy it.She also defines that good human life as an active lifestyle.Annas’ understanding makes the good human life even more free of luck.All these methods further reduce the influence of ethical luck on the virtue theory.In this sense,the contemporary virtue theory can obtain a defense in the face of ethical luck.However,the objectivity of ethical luck in ethic life always makes it exist as the background of virtue theories.The fragility of virtue theories in the face of ethical luck is the reflection of real ethical life in the theory,the “entanglement” between virtue theories and ethical luck cannot be resolved.Therefore,the “tolerant” attitude of contemporary virtue theories in the face of ethical luck is more meaningful.