Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In logic and mathematics, necessity and sufficiency are terms used to describe a conditional or implicational relationship between two statements.For example, in the conditional statement: "If P then Q", Q is necessary for P, because the truth of Q is guaranteed by the truth of P.
Leibniz henceforth distinguishes two types of necessity: necessary necessity and contingent necessity, or universal necessity vs singular necessity. Universal necessity concerns universal truths, while singular necessity concerns something necessary that could not be (it is thus a "contingent necessity").
Contingency is one of three basic modes alongside necessity and possibility. In modal logic, a contingent statement stands in the modal realm between what is necessary and what is impossible, never crossing into the territory of either status. Contingent and necessary statements form the complete set of possible statements.
Metaphysical necessity is contrasted with other types of necessity. For example, the philosophers of religion John Hick [2] and William L. Rowe [3] distinguished the following three: factual necessity (existential necessity): a factually necessary being is not causally dependent on any other being, while any other being is causally dependent on it.
Modal logic is a kind of logic used to represent statements about necessity and possibility.It plays a major role in philosophy and related fields as a tool for understanding concepts such as knowledge, obligation, and causation.
Necessary and sufficient condition, in logic, something that is a required condition for something else to be the case; Necessary proposition, in logic, a statement about facts that is either unassailably true (tautology) or obviously false (contradiction) Metaphysical necessity, in philosophy, a truth which is true in all possible worlds
Treating logical truths, analytic truths, and necessary truths as equivalent, logical truths can be contrasted with facts (which can also be called contingent claims or synthetic claims). Contingent truths are true in this world, but could have turned out otherwise (in other words, they are false in at least one possible world).
Necessary truths can be derived from the law of identity (and the principle of non-contradiction): "Necessary truths are those that can be demonstrated through an analysis of terms, so that in the end they become identities, just as in Algebra an equation expressing an identity ultimately results from the substitution of values [for variables ...