necessary |
Working Definition:
the condition without which something could not exist.
Disciplinary Definitions:
necessary: "characterized by the impossibility of being otherwise"
necessary condition: "a condition X is necessary for condition Y if whenever X does not occur, then Y does not occur." Angeles, Dictionary of Philosophy.
the modal property of being dependent upon a condition. See Audi, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy on "contingent" and on "modal logic."
Comments:
[Note: in using the terms, "necessary," "probable," and "possible," I am not invoking modal logic. I am merely describing three states of belief, that something undeniably exists, that something probably exists but can be denied, and that something could possibly exist, but is neither necessary nor probable because it exists only as imagined.]
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last revised:
June 13, 2007
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