The Extended Luck Problem

Abstract

Chapter 4 continues critical discussion of the cross-world or present luck problem regarding obligation. It assesses various responses to this problem, including responses by teleological theorists about action explanation, agent causalists, and event causalists. It evaluates the view that so-called non-action-centered varieties of libertarianism (as opposed to action-centered varieties) bypass this objection. It discusses why the phenomenon of “tracing” with respect to obligation—the freedom of an action that is obligatory may be inherited from a previously performed free action—is not promising. It argues, finally, that this sort of luck objection is far reaching. It affects non-moral varieties of obligation, such as prudential obligation, and extends to best-from-one’s-own-point-of-view judgments that play a vital role in our practical deliberations.