FORTUNE

A chance event whose per accidents cause is an agent operating by deliberate intention; more commonly referred to as luck. In his Physics (197a 35–197b 1), aristotle treats chance as a genus, with fortune and the special type of chance that is not traceable to deliberate intention as its species. He also uses the notion of fortune, as something more known to man, to manifest the notion of chance. The latter is, like the operation of nature it-self, difficult for the human intellect to grasp clearly. Yet one can see in human affairs that, at times, something happens to an intended effect that is beyond the intention or expectation of the agent, as when a person digging a grave finds a buried treasure.

Unlike chance, fortune or luck is called good or bad depending on the event that happens to the agent. Good luck is often identified with happiness, especially by those who think that the goods dispensed by fortune play a significant part in determining man's happiness. Misfortune, on the other hand, is usually associated with any unintended harm that comes to the agent.

Various notions of good and evil result in correspondingly different notions of fortune and misfortune. By reason of their identification of the good with the objects of desire, the Roman Stoics associated fortune with moral virtue. Since sorrow comes from a present evil, in their view the wise or virtuous man is careful to forestall any evil or misfortune; failing that, he reconciles his desires to what he cannot prevent. Good fortune is important to the extent that it is helpful in the "art of living." (see stoicism.)

Niccolò machiavelli, comparing fortune to a "raging river," advises his prince to yield to its violence when necessary, but to provide for any reoccurrence "when the weather becomes fair," so that the "waters may pass away by canal." In particular undertakings he advises the prince to "direct his actions according to the spirit of the times" in such a way that he may anticipate fortune and be ready to receive it. He concludes that, since fortune changes while men remain the same, men will be successful when they are in agreement with fortune and unsuccessful when they are at odds with it. He further notes that "fortune is a woman" and thus yields more readily to the young and the bold man.

Finally there are those who identify fortune with fate, and the latter, in turn, with the providence of god. Both identifications are associated with one type or other of absolute determinism in the universe.

See Also: chance; fate and fatalism.

Bibliography: m. j. adler, The Great Ideas:A Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western World, 2 v. (Chicago, 1952); v.2, 3 of Great Books of the Western World. 1:179–192, 515–525. a. ciotti, Encyclopedia filosofica, 4 v. (Venice-Rome 1957) 2: 503–504.

[r. a. kocourek]