Accident

Words for “accident” in philosophy often include symbebēkós (Greek), ʿaraż (Arabic/Persian), and mode (modern Western), all referring to a non-essential property of a substance that can change without altering its fundamental nature. These terms contrast with “essence,” “substance,” or “being,” which represent the fundamental and unchangeable nature of a thing. Other related concepts include potentiality, qualia, indeterminism, and randomness, which touch on aspects of chance, perception, and possibility. ]
Greek and Aristotelian terminology

Symbebēkós (συμβεβηκός): The original Greek term used by Aristotle, meaning a property that happens to belong to something but is not part of its definition or essence.
Predicable: In logic, an accident can be understood as one of the five predicables, or ways of describing a subject.
Potentiality and Actuality: Aristotle’s concept of potentiality relates to what something could become, while actuality is what it is in the present. Accidents are seen as properties that exist in actuality but are not part of a thing’s essential potential.
Categories: Aristotle categorized accidents into nine types, such as quantity, quality, relation, place, and time, to show how they modify a substance.

Islamic and other philosophical traditions

ʿARAŻ (عَرَض): The Arabic and Persian term for “accident,” which is a direct translation of the Greek symbebēkós.
Hypostasis: While often used in theology, this term can also relate to substance or being, providing a contrast to the changing nature of accidents.
Ousia: The Greek term for “essence” or “being,” which serves as the foundational counterpart to accident.

Modern Western philosophy

Mode: A term that gained prominence in modern philosophy, particularly with thinkers like Descartes, to describe a non-essential attribute of a substance.
Noumenon and Phenomenon: While not a direct synonym, Kant’s distinction between the “thing-in-itself” (noumenon) and its appearance to our senses (phenomenon) relates to the idea of essential versus accidental properties.
Qualia: In contemporary philosophy of mind, qualia are the subjective, conscious experiences of sensory perceptions, which can be seen as types of accidental properties of a conscious being.

Conceptual overlaps and related ideas

Indeterminism: The philosophical stance that not all events are causally determined, which aligns with the idea of accidents as chance occurrences.
Randomness and Stochastics: Mathematical and philosophical concepts dealing with chance and probability, providing tools to analyze accidental events.
Contingency: A property of something that could have been otherwise, contrasting with necessity (which is considered essential).

AI responses may include mistakes.

[1] wikipedia/en/Accident_(philosophy)