The Competition Account of Achievement‐Value

Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 100 (4):1018-1046 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

A great achievement makes one’s life go better independently of its results, but what makes an achievement great? A simple answer is—its difficulty. I defend this view against recent, pressing objections by interpreting difficulty in terms of competitiveness. Difficulty is determined not by how hard the agent worked for the end but by how hard others would need to do in order to compete. Successfully reaching a goal is a valuable achievement because it is difficult, and it is difficult because it is competitive. Hence, both virtuosic performances and lucky successes can be valuable achievements.

Author's Profile

Ian D. Dunkle
University of Southern Mississippi

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-04-08

Downloads
587 (#24,795)

6 months
94 (#37,887)

Historical graph of downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks on external links on PhilPapers.
How can I increase my downloads?