Philosophy Speakers: Rachel McKinnon “You Make Your Own Luck”

In this paper, I take up two questions. First, what does it mean to say that someone creates their own luck? At least colloquially speaking, luck is conceived as something out of an agent’s control. So how could an agent increase or decrease the likelihood that they’ll be lucky? Building on some recent work on the metaphysics of luck, I’ll argue that there is a sense in which agents can create their own luck. Second, what implications does this conception of luck have for related topics such as how we evaluate performances (like shooting an arrow), including coming to know something? The ubiquitous presence of luck in our actions is often under-appreciated. I’ll argue that we need a more nuanced view of how luck sometimes undermines credit for success in agents’ actions. The upshot of my view is that while luck may undermine the creditworthiness of an agent’s success, it only partially undermines creditworthiness. [Note: This paper will be part of an invited special volume on luck being put together by Duncan Pritchard for Metaphilosophy. It will also be part of a spin-off book with Routledge.] About the Speaker Rachel McKinnon (PhD Waterloo) is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Calgary. She specializes in epistemology and philosophy of language, and her primary research currently focuses on the relationship between knowledge and action. She has published articles in Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, American Philosophical Quarterly, Metaphilosophy, Philosophical Studies, Philosophical Psychology, Dialogue, Hypatia, and Episteme. She is currently working on a book titled, The Norms of Assertion. In August 2014 she will join the Department of Philosophy at the College of Charleston as an Assistant Professor.

Location:

Social Sciences Building – Room 1253

More information at http://www.ucalgary.ca/events/calendar/philosophy-speakers-rachel-mckinnon-you-make-your-own-luck