Thus in some respects we have luck to thank (or curse) for our current situation and we
will inevitably remain vulnerable to the sorts of uncertainties about which we cannot
offer protection or a defence. In short we will always be vulnerable to certain sorts of
threats of harm. But, as noted above, vulnerability is not a constant and the extent to
which a given individual is vulnerable will vary. Moreover, given that there are certain
things to which an individual will always be vulnerable, there are other things to which
that same individual will be more or less vulnerable and the degree of that vulnerability
will change over time and place. That is to say that while I may be in the wrong place at
the wrong time (a common expression of the role of luck in our lives) and suffer harm
as a result, the amount of harm I experience may be determined by a range of factors
only some of which I may be in a position to influence.
Pedestrians walking on the pavement do get injured by motor vehicles on occasion
(when, for example, a driver looses control of his vehicle or is incapacitated in some
way) and we tend to think that those harmed in such circumstances are particularly
unlucky. In contrast some particular others will feel themselves lucky indeed to have
escaped harm for they may have been in that same spot at the 'wrong' time but for some
seemingly random event that resulted either in their early or late arrival at the location
of an accident.
Judgment
We can and indeed we do strive to reduce both the role of luck in our lives and our
vulnerability with varying degrees of success. Our individual successes occur in
response to the sorts of threats we can guard against, the sorts of harms about which we
can be reasonably confident in our predictions. This requires the use of judgement. Thus
we can be reasonably confident that, under normal circumstances, if we walk on the
pavement rather than in the road we will avoid being hit by a motor vehicle. This is the
sort of prediction we rely upon when going about our daily business but in being only
reasonably confident we must allow that there is no absolute certainty of our safety.
Generally speaking we do act so as to reduce our vulnerability. Actions such as walking
on the pavement rather than in the road normally have an actual protective effect,
although it is quite easy to imagine that not only might there be specific occasions when
walking on the road is safer than walking on the pavement but also occasions when
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