Hales S. The Myth of Luck - Philosophy, Fate and Fortune

London, New York, Oxford: Bloomsbury Academic, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2020. — XII, 228 p.Humanity has thrown everything we have at implacable luck-novel theologies, entire philosophical movements, fresh branches of mathematics-and yet we seem to have gained only the smallest edge on the power of fortune. The Myth of Luck tells us why we have been fighting an unconquerable foe.Taking us on a guided tour of one of our oldest concepts, we begin in ancient Greece and Rome, considering how Plato, Plutarch, and the Stoics understood luck, before entering the theoretical world of probability and exploring how luck relates to theology, sports, ethics, gambling, knowledge, and present-day psychology. As we travel across traditions, times and cultures, we come to realize that it's not that as soon as we solve one philosophical problem with luck that two more appear, like heads on a hydra, but rather that the monster is altogether mythological. We cannot master luck because there is nothing to defeat: luck is no more than a persistent and troubling illusion.By introducing us to compelling arguments and convincing reasons that explain why there is no such thing as luck, we finally see why in a very real sense we make our own luck, that luck is our own doing. The Myth of Luck helps us to regain our own agency in the world - telling the entertaining story of the philosophy and history of luck along the way.Luck is a golden thread woven through the tapestry of the history of ideas, uniting gods and gamblers, philosophers and theologians, logicians, astrologers, emperors, scientists, and slaves. All have feared ill fortune and hoped for good luck, all have wondered what the fates have written in the book of their lives. Much of who we become is due to chance and yet we tell ourselves that we are self-made and our lives are wholly due to our own choices. Or when we have hard times we write it off to bad luck instead of our own mistakes. Even what we know and understand about the world around us is often just good fortune, not due to our own praiseworthy effort. We struggle to predict and control the events around us, and try to foresee what the future will bring. Most of all we attempt to explain our own lives to ourselves, and sort out what was chance and what was our own doing. Humanity has thrown everything we have at implacable luck — novel theologies, entire philosophical movements, fresh branches of mathematics — and yet we seem to have gained only the smallest edge on the power of fortune.The present book will argue that we have been fighting an unconquerable foe. It’s not that as soon as we solve one problem with luck that two more appear, like new heads from a decapitated hydra, but rather that the monster is altogether mythological. We cannot master luck because there is literally nothing to defeat: we will see that luck is no more than a persistent and troubling illusion. There is no such thing as luck. Recognizing that fact will help us focus our energies on related phenomena that are real, like fortune and chance. What’s more, we’ll see that in a very real sense that we make our own luck, that luck is our own doing, our own perspective on how things turn out. Cleaning our mental house of dusty old concepts that we’re hanging onto because we keep hoping that they will one day be useful — that is liberating. To give up luck is to regain our own agency in the world.A fascinating discourse on the nature and significance of luck that draws on a diverse range of sources; a delightful and enlightening journey. In this book, Steven Hales challenges what we often take to be uncontentious assumptions about luck and its significance in our lives, both morally and epistemically. The result is a novel and provocative account of luck, one that will be an important reference point for future work in the area. A lively, richly illustrated romp through a deep human topic, all in hopes of freeing us from Lady Fortuna's grip. We confuse luck for chance and fortune, Hales suggests, and we re-gain our sense of agency by knowing which is which.Very insightful, entertaining and extremely informative. An entertaining look at what "luck" means. The pop style keeps it moving and current. It's a robust treatment, building up justification for probability, control, and modal theories of luck using many examples that stretch from the incredible to the humorous. Then he tears each theory down the same way to get to his conclusion: "Luck is a cognitive illusion."Lachesis’s Lottery and the History of Luck
Luck and Skill
Fragility and Control
Moral Luck
Knowledge and Serendipity
The Irrational Biases of LuckNotes
Bibliography of Works Cited
Index