In philosophy and logic, contingency is the status of facts that are not logically necessary. See modal logic. Contingency is opposed to necessity: a contingent act is an act which could not have been, which is not necessary (a necessary act is an act which could not not have been).

In colloquial English, a contingency is something that can happen, but that generally is not anticipated. Planning for contingencies is called defensive design. Beforehand, contingencies are hard to predict; failure to predict contingencies has led to the formulation of Murphy's law.

See also

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• Contingency theory
• Problem of the futures contingents

External link

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Michael Shermer, "Glorious Contingency," Metanexus Net http://www.metanexus.net/metanexus_online/show_article.asp?8491

Modal logic

Kontingenz | Contingent | Kontingenteso | Contingentie | contingência