ABSTRACT
Thomas Nagel’s taxonomy distinguishes between four kinds of moral luck—namely, resultant, circumstantial, constitutive, and causal moral luck. These kinds of moral luck are distinguished primarily by the type of factor that is beyond the agent’s control. Causal moral luck occurs when the laws of nature and past states of affairs outside of a person’s control causally determine her actions, and the laws and past affect her positive praiseworthiness or blameworthiness. The denial of circumstantial moral luck amounts to the claim that the morally significant challenges a person actually faces outside of her control cannot affect her positive praiseworthiness and blameworthiness. John Greco distinguishes between two commonsense kinds of moral evaluation. Moral record evaluation pertains to being praiseworthy or blameworthy for an actual state of affairs such as a trait, an action, or a consequence, and moral worth evaluation pertains to being a good or bad person.
