Simon Fraser University Workshop on Luck and Achievements

Knowledge is a cognitive achievement that precludes luck: if you know that p, then you believe truly that p, and it is no lucky accident that you believe truly that p. In this regard, knowledge is not unique. Having a doxastically justified belief is another cognitive achievement that precludes luck: if you have a doxastically justified belief, then you believe what is propositionally justified for you to believe, and it is no lucky accident that you so believe. And performing a morally worthy action is yet another luck-excluding achievement: if your action has moral worth, then you do the right thing, and it is no lucky accident that you do the right thing.

While achievements generally preclude luck, not every kind of luck is achievement undermining. Duncan Pritchard has made this clear in the case of knowledge. You happen to overhear a student inform another that they’ve secured a copy of the final exam’s answer key. You now believe that the integrity of the final exam has been compromised. You are lucky to have a true belief about the integrity of the final exam: you now know that you need to draft another version. Still, this kind of luck—i.e., luck in the evidence that one possesses—does not undermine the fact that you know that the final exam has been compromised.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together scholars to discuss central and related issues on luck and on achievements (cognitive, normative, or otherwise) and to present their work in a friendly environment.

Keynotes

Duncan Pritchard (University of California, Irvine)

John Greco (Georgetown University)

Speakers

Harjit Singh Bhogal (University of Maryland)

Kyle Fruh (Duke Kunshan University)

Giovanni Gonella (University of Genoa)

Kellan D.L. Head (Syracuse University) 

Chris Blake-Turner (Oklahoma State University) 

Jonathan Dixon (Wake Forest University)

Registration

The workshop is free and open to the public. To attend, please register by November 5, 2024, via Eventbrite or via email: luckandachievements2024@gmail.com. 

For further inquiries, please contact luckandachievements2024@gmail.com. We look forward to welcoming you on November 23 - 24.

Schedule

Location: 515 West Hastings Street Vancouver (SFU, Harbour Centre), V6B 5K3

2270 Sauder Industries Policy Room

Saturday, November 23

9:00 – 9:30    Coffee, tea, snacks

9:30 – 11:00   Keynote (remote): Duncan Pritchard (University of California, Irvine) “Understanding, Luck and Achievement” 

11:10 – 12:25   Chris Blake-Turner (Oklahoma State University) “Basing without Deviant Causal Chains: A Normativist Account”

12:25 – 14:15   Lunch break

14:15 – 15:30   Giovanni Gonella (University of Genoa) “Conceptual Luck”

15:45 – 17:00   Harjit Singh Bhogal (University of Maryland) “The Explanatory Structure of Moral Worth” 

Sunday, November 24 

9:00 – 9:30    Coffee, tea, snacks

9:30 – 10:45   Kyle Fruh (Duke Kunshan University) “The Hero’s Fortune: Moral Achievement and Luck”

10:55 – 12:10   Kellan Head (Syracuse University) “Lucky Doxastic Justification” 

12:10 – 14:00   Lunch break

14:00 – 15:15  Jonathan Dixon (Wake Forest University) “Knowledge-how and Gettier cases” 

15:30 – 17:00  Keynote: John Greco (Georgetown University), “The Anti-Luck Condition on Joint Achievements”