In “Book II: Physics,” Aristotle talks about the nature of things and how they change. According to him they change because of four causes: material, formal, efficient & final. In section 4, titled “Luck and Chance,” (Pg.207) he discusses how luck and chance are said to be causes, and what exactly they are. The passage that interested me was the one titled “Doubts about the existence of luck.” In it he says that some people wonder whether or not luck exits because nothing results from it. Anything that is said to result from it has a “cause.” He gives the example of a man going to a marketplace and meeting another man that coincidently he wanted to meet but did not expect at this time. The “cause” was the man wishing to go to the market.
So, does luck exist or not? Yes but not as a “cause”. In fact Aristotle says that luck stems from events that nature itself may have cause. While reading this passage I was reminded of Spinoza, and how a mere coincidence can cause an entire belief in superstitions. Since fear causes irrational behavior, superstitions (that stem from fear) are irrational beliefs that something good will happen only if you follow a certain ritual. The fact that something good does happen is a coincidence. There is nothing that proves that the opposite could have equally happened. What does this have to do with luck?
Well, luck defined is good or bad fortune caused by accident or chance and is also associated with faith or superstition. Since luck is basically coincidences it cannot be thought of as a cause of anything in nature, seeing as how things in nature did not happen as just a coincidence. Right before the end of this section on luck and chance (Pg. 211 paragraph “How luck and chance are…”) Aristotle himself says that the mind and nature must be prior causes of many things in this universe and chance and luck are posterior.
