A Study Of Bernard Williams' Moral Luck

The modern moral philosophy,especially the Kantian ethics,is based on rationalism.The theory stands in a general and impartial position to make moral judgments,which simplifies the complexity of human ethical life.Therefore,based on the philosophical thinking of daily life and the tension of happiness and luck in traditional philosophy,he criticizes the modern moral theory and puts forward the concept of "moral luck" for the first time.Although Williams did not exactly define moral luck,he affirmed the existence of moral luck and demonstrated the influence of moral luck on moral evaluation.According to Williams,the defense of the rationality of the behavior should be reasonable to the moral justification of the pre-established moral rules to evaluate the behavior of the actors.Because the defense of rationality is that moral evaluation should be based on the actor as the first person perspective and retrospective.This form of defense takes full account of the individual and the particularity of the people in the ethical life,and also allows the luck factor into the moral evaluation.In addition,Williams also proposed a special kind of moral emotion,agent-regret,and pointed out that this kind of emotion is related to the luck factor,and with a certain normative and strong moral significance.In the face of controversy caused by the concept of moral luck,Williams gave his response.He clarified the original intention of the rhetorical expression of moral luck as a contradiction,and he also believed that the character actors can still shine to show in a variety of threats in luck.Williams also distinguished between the "ethics" and "morality",trying to lead the thinking of moral luck toward a right direction.As one of the themes of Williams' moral philosophy,the thought of moral luck fully embodies the ethical thought purport which he tried to understand and explain the complexity of human ethical life.It also reflects the uniqueness and originality of his philosophy.At the same time,the thought of moral luck has great theoretical and practical significance.For example,it inspired people to actively reflect on modern moral theory,and to some extent,it promoted the revival of modern virtue ethics.However,there are some theoretical problems in Williams' moral luck.Therefore,we need to objectively evaluate his thought of moral luck.