In philosophy and logic, contingency is the status of facts that are not logically necessarily true or false. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference.
In philosophy and logic, people draw a distinction between
- possibility: "If it happened, it must be possible" -- If an act happened, it must be a possible act. A possible statement is not necessarily false. A "possibility", such as a coincidence, is either a "contingency", or a "necessity" (but not both). Coincidence is the noteworthy alignment of two or more events or circumstances without obvious causal connection
- contingency: a contingent act is an act which "could have not happened". Each contingent act is also a possible act, but not vice versa. A contingent statement is not necessarily false, but it is not necessarily true either.
- necessity: a necessary act is an act which "could not have not happened. In Criminal law, necessity may be either a possible justification or an exculpation for breaking the Law. In other words, a necessary act inevitably must have happened. Each necessary act is also a possible act, but not vice versa. A necessary statement is a statement that is necessarily true, such as a tautology.
External links
- Michael Shermer, "Glorious Contingency," Metanexus Net [1]
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic