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Thomas Nagel

Thomas Nagel. JUST LUCKY TO BE GOOD? OR: JUST UNLUCKY TO BE BAD?. Thomas Nagel (born 1937). [NAGEL’s central idea]. J.-P. Sartre: SUBJECTIVE  versus  OBJECTIVE Subjective: inner, self, conscious, free, responsible, moral-or-immoral

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Thomas Nagel

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  1. Thomas Nagel JUST LUCKY TO BE GOOD? OR: JUST UNLUCKY TO BE BAD?

  2. Thomas Nagel (born 1937)

  3. [NAGEL’s central idea] J.-P. Sartre: SUBJECTIVE  versus  OBJECTIVE Subjective: inner, self, conscious, free, responsible, moral-or-immoral Objective: outer, thing, mechanical, determined, irresponsible, amoral

  4. The TENSION Moral Luck is impossible versus Moral Luck is real 1) The “condition of control” (493): “people cannot be morally assessed for what is…due to factors beyond their control” 2) “If the condition of control is consistently applied, it threatens to erode most of the moral assessments we…make.” (493)

  5. INTENTION versus RESULTS “There is a morally significant difference between rescuing someone from a burning building and dropping him from a twelfth-story window while trying to rescue him.” [Is this true? Why?]

  6. Four grades of moral luck (495-499) iv) results (495-7) e.g.: drinking & driving, revolutionaries, baby care iii) circumstances (497-8) e.g.: in Nazi Germany ii) antecedent circumstances (498-9): “Baby Doc”, drug experimentation i) constitutive (?): temperament, [forebrain structures]

  7. CONCLUSION 1 The threat is realized: “If the condition of control is consistently applied, it threatens to erode most of the moral assessments we…make.” (493) The “condition of control” (493): “people cannot be morally assessed for what is…due to factors beyond their control” BUT: If we subtract moral luck (by applying condition of control), “…nothing remains.” (498)

  8. CONCLUSION 2 “…actions are events and people [are] things.” (499) [NOTES: 1. This is the result of taking the objective view of the world. 2. We cannot really accept this given our subjective view of the world.]

  9. NAGEL’S DISCUSSION (499) 1. “We are unable to view ourselves simply as portions of the world…” 2. “Guilt and indignation, shame and contempt, pride and admiration are internal and external sides of the same moral attitudes.” 3. We cannot accept moral luck “for it leaves us with no one to be.”

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