On the Scope of Chance in Aristotle

Abstract

Aristotle analyses chance (tyche) in terms of three conditions : (a) exceptional, (b) accidental and (c) for something (heneka tou). Some scholars deduce the statistical interpretation of chance from the condition a, and some conclude the subjectivity-interpretation of chance from the condition b. Moreover, the condition c at face value has been thought to raise the puzzle : the condition c contradicts the fact that chance events are not for agents' purposes. In this paper I shall try to resolve this puzzle, through rejecting the two above-mentioned interpretations, from the viewpoint of modality or modes of being.