Accidents and Luck

‘Being’ has several senses. One is ‘being by accident’.

For neither does architecture consider what will happen to those who are to use the house (e.g. whether they have a painful life in it or not), nor does weaving, or shoemaking, or the confectioner’s art, do the like; but each of these sciences considers only what is peculiar to it, i.e. its proper end. And as for the argument that ‘when he who is musical becomes lettered he’ll be both at once, not having been both before;

That which is, not always having been, must have come to be; therefore he must have at once become musical and lettered’,-this none of the recognized sciences considers, but only sophistic; for this alone busies itself about the accidental, so that Plato is not far wrong when he says that the sophist spends his time on non-being.

A science of the accidental is not even possible.

Everything either is always and of necessity

Necessity here is not in the sense of violence, but that which we appeal to in demonstrations.

For example, There might be cold in the dogdays.

• But this does not occurs always or most often, though it might happen sometimes.
• This does not occur of necessity*.

The accidental is what occurs:

• not always
• not of necessity [of our ignorance of causes]
• not most of the time

There is no science of accidents because all science is for things that happen always or often

Thus, the accidental has no causes and principles.

• It is the same kind as that of the essential.
• With the essential, everything would be of necessity.

If A is when B is, and B is when C is, and if C exists not by chance but of necessity, that also of which C was cause will exist of necessity, down to the last causatum as it is called (but this was supposed to be accidental).

Therefore all things will be of necessity, and chance and the possibility of a thing’s either occurring or not occurring are removed entirely from the range of events.

If the cause be supposed not to exist but to be coming to be, the same results will follow; everything will occur of necessity.

Tomorrow’s eclipse will occur if A occurs, and A if B occurs, and B if C occurs.

In this way, if we subtract time from the limited time between now and to-morrow we shall come sometime to the already existing condition. Therefore since this exists, everything after this will occur of necessity, so that all things occur of necessity.

As to that which ‘is’ in the sense of being true or of being by accident, the former depends on a combination in thought and is an affection of thought (which is the reason why it is the principles, not of that which ‘is’ in this sense, but of that which is outside and can exist apart, that are sought); and the latter is not necessary but indeterminate (I mean the accidental); and of such a thing the causes are unordered and indefinite.

Luck

Adaptation to an end is found in events that happen by nature or as the result of thought.

It is ’luck’ when one of these events happens by accident. For as a thing may exist, so it may be a cause, either by its own nature or by accident.

Luck is an accidental cause at work in such events adapted to an end as are usually effected in accordance with purpose.

And so, luck and thought are concerned with the same sphere. This is because purpose cannot exist without thought.

The causes from which lucky results might happen are indeterminate.*

And so luck is obscure to human calculation and is a cause by accident, but in the unqualified sense, a cause of nothing.

It is:

• good or bad luck when the result is good or evil
• prosperity or misfortune when the results are large.

Accidents come after essence. And so accidents are not causes.

Therefore, if luck or spontaneity caused the material universe, then reason and nature are causes before luck.