Moral Luck and Sophie’s Choice
“Where a significant aspect of what someone does depends upon factors beyond his control, yet we continue to treat him in that respect as an object of moral judgment, it can be called moral luck.” – Thomas Nagel, “Moral Luck”
Nagel argues that moral luck threatens to undermine moral responsibility and our ordinary practices of praising and blaming people. When we view others and ourselves from ‘the external view,’ we realize that we have very little control over ourselves, our lives, and our circumstances (38). Given that moral responsibility seems to require control, we can watch it disappear before our eyes as we focus our attention upon the vast “world that we have not created” (38). But, as Nagel observes, we do not seem to be bothered by the existence of moral luck. When we view things from the external perspective, we see moral luck as deeply problematic. However, as soon as we step away from this perspective, our ordinary attitudes kick in and we revert to our previous ways.
One famous example of bad moral luck occurs in the film Sophie’s Choice. While in a concentration camp, Sophie is forced to make the following choice: (a) she can choose to keep one child (who will live), (b) or she can give both children away to the guards (who will kill them).
Most people who watch Sophie’s Choice express deep sympathy for Sophie and her situation. It seems that she will causes some ‘moral damage’ no matter what she does. But how does the choice that she eventually makes affect our moral evaluation of her? How does it affect her moral evaluation of herself and her life? Although she had no control over her situation, she made an (unavoidably) horrible choice that would stay with her forever.
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Source: “Chapter Three: Moral Luck.” In Mortal Questions, by Thomas Nagel. pp. 24-38. Cambridge University Press (NY), 1979.
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