Abstract

The aim of this paper is to improve our understanding of the category of moral “luck”. In current debate most often only specific cases of moral “luck” are taken into account. Such restrictions, however, involving a fragmentary picture of moral "luck", are introduced without any rationale for them. In this paper I look for a formal comprehensiveness of the category of moral “luck”. I consider three factors each of which is developed in two scenarios. These are (i) whether the agent’s action is nasty or nice, (ii) whether the agent’s intention is confirmed or contradicted by her action, and (iii) whether the agent’s action is preceded by her intention or the lack thereof. I explore eight scenarios which are a mark of the intricacy of the category of moral “luck” otherwise ignored in the literature. After an assessment of their structure I arrive at new distinctions. The upshot is a rather complex set of correlations between several cases of moral “luck” with a variety of kinds and shades.