Luck: The Brilliant Randomness of Everyday Life

Nicholas Rescher is Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh and co-chairman of the Center for Philosophy of Science. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has served as president of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, the Leibniz Society of North America, the Charles S. Peirce Society, the American Catholic Philosophical Association, and the Metaphysical Society of America. Rescher is the author or editor of more than one hundred books, including Ignorance (On the Wider Implications of Deficient Knowledge), Philosophical Inquiries: An Introduction to Problems of Philosophy, and A Journey through Philosophy in 101 Anecdotes.

From the roll of the dice in a craps game to the questions that show up on the SAT, our lives are constantly affected by luck. But what is the nature of luck? What role has it played in history? These questions and many more are tackled in this unique book, which looks at luck from multiple perspectives, including how language shapes the way we think about luck; the differences between luck, fortune, and fate; the history of the idea of luck in the Western tradition; and the impossibility of shaping or directing luck. Rescher has no use for such superstitions as rabbit's feet or knocking on wood, but he supports the belief that luck favors the prepared. He encourages the reader to take reasonable, carefully calculated risks, assuming that luck will run favorably more frequently than unfavorably. Finally, he contends that, without luck, life as we know it would be unsustainable, that the randomness of good and bad luck gives life the spice that makes it palatable. This is a fascinating look at an underexplored topic. George Needham

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