12321
Contingency
?- 0 Hegel's 'System of Science'
- 1 Logic (Thinking of Thinking, Science of Science)
- 2 Nature (science of matter)
- 3 Spirit/Mind (Science of humanities)
- 11 Being (immediateness, 'Ontology')
- 12 Essence (mediation, reflection, metaphysics)
- 13 Concept (Notion / Logos / Comprehension, 'Begriff')
- 121 Essence as Reflection Within Itself
- 122 Appearance (Erscheinung)
- 123 Actuality (Wirklichkeit)
- 1231 The Absolute
- 1232 Actuality as such
- 1233 Absolute Relation
- 12321 Contingency
- 12322 Relative necessity
- 12323 Absolute Necessity
- 123211 Formal Actuality
- 123212 Formal possibility
- 123213 Formal necessity
Contingency
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The contingent is that which could also be otherwise --- actuality that appears only as possibility. Hegel distinguishes: 1. Epistemic contingency --- we do not know the causes (but they exist) 2. Practical contingency --- the coincidence of independent causal chains (you "by chance" meet an acquaintance --- two independent paths cross)
Origin: Aristotle: *to automaton* (the automatic, the chance). Middle Ages: contingentia vs. necessitas. Kant: contingency as a modal category. Hegel: contingency as a transitional form toward necessity.
In Hegel: Enz. §144-146; Science of Logic, Vol. 2, Actuality
Cross-references: Necessity, Possibility, Actuality, Ground, Logic of Essence