The ethics of prediction

The ability to predict might appear to be an unambiguous good, especially in the ancient world where, we are told, people were constantly at the mercy of natural forces. Furthermore, the ability to predict was also linked to the development of Greek techne and science, which, at least in the positivist history of science, is always represented in the most positive terms. By prediction I mean a wide variety of attempts to predict events in the lives of individuals, families and polities, as well as attempts to predict natural or cosmological events and anomalies, often for political purposes. I begin reviewing some contemporary debates about the virtues of prediction. Next I ask whether and in what form the ethics of prediction was an issue in Chinese and Greek antiquity. I then focus on two contexts: defenses of medical and military prognostication and debates about divination.