It Was Not Luck, I Was Prepared: Axel Barceló’s Theory of Luck

Abstract

In this work I introduce Barceló’s account of luck as put forward in his book Fallibility and Normativity. A Philosophical Analysis of Luck. According to Barceló, luck is an irreducibly normative notion that points to the fact that an agent has achieved an aim in a way he was not prepared for. This new view brings light to apparently very diverse philosophical problems, such as the role of luck in our epistemic and moral evaluations, the vagueness problem, or epistemic modals. I argue that, even though this proposal must deal with some problems when tracing the link between being prepared and acting responsibly, the overall spirit of Barceló’s theory enjoys significant advantages over alternative theories of luck.