Abstract
From the perspective of his research on luck (tychê) and chance (automaton), Aristotle’s philosophy presents an interesting contradiction between the unusual nature of chance in the physical writings and the demand of a permanent external prosperity as necessary condition for happiness (eudaimonia) in the ethics. This problem is related to the elucidation of the nature of the fortunate person (eutychês) in Eudemian Ethics VIII 2. The paper attempts to approach these problems paying special attention to Nicomachean Ethics (NE), Eudemian Ethics (EE) and Magna Moralia and trying to elucidate: i) what is the role of fortune and external prosperity in the fulfillment of happiness; and ii) what does it mean for certain human beings to be “fortunate”. In other words: why certain rational and moral agents, exposed to the vicissitudes of fortune as anybody else, seem to be favored by circumstances always or for the most part.
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