FORTUNATE MISFORTUNE REVISITED: FURTHER REFLECTIONS

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In a previous work I considered the philosophically neglected phenomenon of 'Fortunate Misfortune' (or FM). This follows from the way in which sometimes what seems an obvious misfortune turns out, in fact, to be actually good fortune. The paradox, in a certain class of cases, is this: if a seemingly unfortunate aspect of a life has proven to be beneficial overall, then it has not been a real misfortune. However, certain aspects of actual lives seem to be obvious misfortunes, irrespective of what follows. Often, saying both that the life-aspects under consideration are misfortunes and denying that they are, seem unacceptable. In the present paper I aim to survey some of the conceptual, moral and social implications of cases of Fortunate Misfortune. This will be mostly done in the form of questions, exploring the perplexities FM brings up and the challenges it hence poses for further work.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)93-108
Number of pages16
JournalRoczniki Filozoficzne
Volume71
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Keywords

  • disadvantage
  • fortunate misfortune
  • misfortune
  • moral paradoxes
  • rationality
  • Smilansky

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Philosophy

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