Luck and Good Fortune in the Eudemian Ethics

Recently there has been some discussion of Aristotle's treatment of good for-tune (£\m>x;{a) in the penultimate chapter of the Eudemian Ethics. I There are two claims about this chapter I wish to challenge. One maintains that the use of the word tUXll (usually translated as 'luck ' or 'chance') in the EE is 'quite different' from Aristotle's theoretical discussion of luck, found in the Physics (Woods 1992, 67). The other claim is that good fortune is a subspecies of luck (Kenny 1992, ch. 5, esp. 71 and 75). In challenging these two views, I hope to develop an account of Aristotle's true intent in this chapter. In the first part of this article I consider the notion of luck as it is presented in the Physics and then argue that the discussion of luck in the EE accords with this. In the second part I argue that by the end of his discussion of good fortune in the EE, Aristotle does not consider good fortune to be any kind of luck at all. I. TuX1l in the Physics and the Eudemian Ethics Woods 1992, 166 denies that the use of 'luck ' (tuX1l) in the EE agrees with its use in the Physics, because in the Physics tUX1l is used in such a way that 'to say that something occurred by chance will not be to give an explanation, but to deny that a general explanation is available'. Thus, there is 'no incompatibility between something's occurring by chance and its being caused', since chance is not a cause distinct from the four real causes (Woods 1992, 167). Instead, 'chance occurrences have the feature that they fall under no law that holds uni-versally or for the most part under the description under which they are correctly said to occur by chance, though they will have some explanation under another description ' (166). In contrast, in the EE, Aristotle clearly asserts that 'it is neces-sary for luck to exist and to be a cause ' (1247b3). Yet, in spite of appearances, I believe that close examination of the relevant passages of the Physics and the EE shows that Aristotle does not use tUX1l in different ways in the two works. TUX11 in the Physics The account of luck that emerges in the EE seems to be underpinned by the theoretical discussion of luck found in the Physics and Metaphysics, or so I shal