Contingent being
While the specific English term “contingency” or “contingent being” (a being that can exist but might not, or whose existence depends on something else) is central to Western philosophy, particularly in arguments from contingency, different traditions use related concepts that circle around similar notions of dependence, possibility, and non-necessity.
Western Philosophical Tradition
- Contingent Being (Latin: ens contingens): The primary term used in medieval scholastic and modern Western philosophy to refer to anything that is not a necessary being (Latin: ens necessarium). Its existence is dependent on external factors and it is possible for it not to exist.
- Possible Objects or Possible Worlds: In modal logic, a contingent truth is one that is true in some possible worlds but not all. The idea of “possible objects” that may or may not exist relates to this notion of contingency.
- Accident (Greek: symbebēkos): In Aristotelian philosophy, an accident is a property that a substance has but could lack, as opposed to its essential properties. While not a direct synonym for “contingent being,” it touches upon the aspect of “that which can be otherwise”.
- That which could and can be otherwise: A descriptive phrase used to explain contingency, distinguishing it from things that “could not and cannot be otherwise” (necessity).
- Dependent Being: A descriptive term emphasizing the reliance on other entities for existence, which is a key characteristic of contingent beings.
Eastern Philosophical Traditions Eastern traditions often approach reality through a non-theistic lens that doesn’t rely on the Western “argument from contingency,” but they explore related ideas of dependent existence and impermanence.
- Karma / Interconnectedness: In many Hindu and Buddhist schools of thought, the concept of karma implies a continuous cycle of cause and effect where everything is interconnected and subject to permanent growth and decay. The existence of any given phenomenon is dependent on a complex web of causes and conditions.
- Impermanence (Sanskrit: Anitya, Pali: Anicca): A core Buddhist doctrine stating that all conditioned phenomena (all things that come into being) are transient and subject to change and decay. This aligns with the idea that things “might not be” because they are not eternal or self-sufficient.
- Dependent Origination (Sanskrit: Pratītyasamutpāda): This fundamental Buddhist principle explains that all phenomena arise in dependence upon other phenomena. Nothing has an independent, necessary existence; everything is “contingent” in the sense of being relationally dependent.
Ancient Greek Philosophy
- Anagkē (ἀνάγκη): Generally translated as “necessity” or “force,” which is typically seen as the opposite of the kind of open-ended possibility associated with contingency in later philosophy. Early Greek philosophers like Leucippus believed all things occurred by anagkē, implying a deterministic universe where true contingency (in the sense of pure chance) did not exist ontologically.
In essence, while “contingency” is the specific term of art in the Western tradition, the underlying idea of existence that is not self-caused, not eternal, or subject to dependency is explored through notions of dependence, possibility, impermanence, and dependent origination across other philosophical systems.
AI responses may include mistakes.
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