Sunday, June 1, 2014

judged to be an achievement

To succeed to earn 1 million USD is universally judged to be an achievement. A lucky turn of events does not an achievement make. A person must be intent on achieving to have his deeds classified as achievements. Supposing a conscious and intelligent person has the intention to achieve a goal. He then engages in a series of absolutely random and unrelated actions, one of which yields the desired result. One must proceed to produce a plan of action, which is directly derived from the overriding goal. Such a plan of action must be seen to be reasonable and pragmatic and leading - with great probability - to the achievement. Attaining an achievement involves the construction of an ad-hoc mini theory. Only if the prediction turns out to be correct can we speak of an achievement.

One must carry out one's plan of action (from mere plan to actual action). If a person consciously intends to obtain a university degree and constructs a plan of action, which involves bribing the professors into conferring one upon him - this will not be considered an achievement. To qualify as an achievement, a university degree entails a continuous and strenuous effort. Such an effort is commensurate with the desired result. Otherwise, the effort will be judged to be random, devoid of meaning, haphazard, arbitrary, capricious, etc. - which will erode the achievement status of the results of the actions. Serendipity cannot underlie an achievement.

An achievement must bring about change. In an entropic, stagnant world - no achievement is ever possible. Sisyphean acts are meaningless and Sisyphus has no achievements to talk about.

If we have no free will - we can have no real plans and intentions and if our actions are determined elsewhere - their results are not ours and nothing like achievement exists but in the form of self delusion.

Labelling a complex of actions and results "an achievement" requires social judgement and social recognition. Events and actions are classified as achievements, in other words, as a result of value judgements within given historical, psychological and cultural contexts. Judgement has to be involved: are the actions and their results negative or positive in the said contexts.

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