forum 11: week of 26 March - knowledge and accomplishment

Clearly when we say someone has accomplished something we mean that they intended to do such an such an act and that it was due to some action they took and not merely due to quiescence or chance. For example the case of the man trying to murder someone but doesn't get to do it the way they intended however the man dies due to catching the flue. So although the man had the intention and did the action the victim did not dye due to that action but rather due to a another cause which the murderer did not even intend to. So the question is did he accomplish the death of his victim? I think it is difficult to say that he didn't because although he did not achieve his desired result by the method which he took the results were achieved...the way to answer this question about accomplishments i think comes back to intention or action....which of the two matter. I would think that according to the criminal law it is intend that matters. if the man intended to murder and did but not due to his action would he be guilty of murder or not? And again that is hard to answer because if he intended to kill the man but the man died from some cause totally irrelevant to his action like a heart attach the next day maybe he would not be found guilty but if he died from a heart attach caused by fright i think he should be guilty. However I can see that although we can accomplish a desired result to say that you have accomplished an accomplishment seems to translate to you DOING something which has directly caused the result. So to AA you must have intent and also an action which directly leads to your result.