Luckless: The Idea of Luck in Ancient Greek Thought [9780197690246]

Overview

What is luck? What is the significance of luck for our ethical and political lives? Could it be the case that luck is an intoxicating illusion, which threatens to obscure the true explanations of human action, excuse wrongdoing or cowardice, provoke powerful emotions, and cloud judgment?

Schillinger's original interpretation of the idea of luck in ancient Greek thought challenges both scholars of ancient Greek texts and theorists of luck in the present. While many contemporaries approach luck as something "out there" in the world that explains why some human beings flourish while others suffer or perish, Schillinger argues that luck is a psychological phenomenon: what we have in mind when we speak of "luck" are the intellectual and emotional reactions of human beings as they run up against the limits of their knowledge and power. Schillinger returns to the Greeks because they fully examined this phenomenon, revealing the roots of the idea of luck in the psyche, its (often confused) role in ethical judgments of praise and blame, and its salience as a rhetorical trope used by statesmen and demagogues. His analysis summons unfamiliar perspectives on these issues in ancient Greek thought—perspectives that are acutely skeptical and attuned to both the realities of politics and the complexities of the human soul.