Luck :
Rescher, Nicholas.
Luck : the brilliant randomness of everyday life / by Nicholas Rescher. - New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995. - ix, 237 p. ; 19 cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
Enigmas of Chance -- Failures of Foresight -- The Different Faces of Luck -- An Infinity of Accidents -- Visions of Sugarplums -- The Philosophers of Gambling -- The Musings of Moralists -- Can the Tiger Be Tamed? -- Life in a Halfway House -- Appendix: Taking Luck's Measure. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX.
In Luck, one of our most eminent philosophers offers a realistic view of the nature and operation of luck to help us come to sensible terms with life in a chaotic world. Differentiating luck from fate (inexorable destiny) and fortune (mere chance), Nicholas Rescher weaves a colorful tapestry of historical examples from antiquity to the present. Luck cannot be manipulated or controlled, Rescher argues, but it can be managed to some extent. From the use of lots in the Old and New Testaments to Thomas Gataker's treatise of 1619 on the great English lottery of 1612, from casino gambling to playing the stock market, Nicholas Rescher's Luck shows how the tiger of luck can be tamed to improve our chances for good luck, reduce those for bad, and in general improve the fortune of mankind.
0374194289 (hbk)
95017421
Chance.
Fortune.
Fate and fatalism.
123 / RES-L 1995 6275
Luck : the brilliant randomness of everyday life / by Nicholas Rescher. - New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995. - ix, 237 p. ; 19 cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
Enigmas of Chance -- Failures of Foresight -- The Different Faces of Luck -- An Infinity of Accidents -- Visions of Sugarplums -- The Philosophers of Gambling -- The Musings of Moralists -- Can the Tiger Be Tamed? -- Life in a Halfway House -- Appendix: Taking Luck's Measure. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX.
In Luck, one of our most eminent philosophers offers a realistic view of the nature and operation of luck to help us come to sensible terms with life in a chaotic world. Differentiating luck from fate (inexorable destiny) and fortune (mere chance), Nicholas Rescher weaves a colorful tapestry of historical examples from antiquity to the present. Luck cannot be manipulated or controlled, Rescher argues, but it can be managed to some extent. From the use of lots in the Old and New Testaments to Thomas Gataker's treatise of 1619 on the great English lottery of 1612, from casino gambling to playing the stock market, Nicholas Rescher's Luck shows how the tiger of luck can be tamed to improve our chances for good luck, reduce those for bad, and in general improve the fortune of mankind.
0374194289 (hbk)
95017421
Chance.
Fortune.
Fate and fatalism.
123 / RES-L 1995 6275