Necessity
Hegel (Logic of Essence, highest modality)
Necessity is the unity of possibility and actuality. The necessary is that which cannot be otherwise --- not because it is determined from outside, but because it follows from its concept. When all conditions are fulfilled, it *must* be so.
Origin
Traditionally: necessity as the opposite of freedom. Spinoza: everything is necessary. Kant: necessity as a modal category. Hegel: necessity as comprehended freedom.
In Hegel
Enc. §§147-149; Science of Logic, Vol. 2, Actuality
Cross-references
Actuality · Possibility · Contingency · Freedom · Substance
Die entwicklung (kap. 7.6-7.7)
1. **Formal necessity** --- if A, then B (external conditionedness) 2. **Real necessity** --- the conditions belong to the matter itself 3. **Absolute necessity** --- the matter is its own ground; freedom
Die pointe
Necessity is not the opposite of freedom but its truth. "Freedom is insight into necessity" --- not blind submission, but grasping *why* it must be so. Whoever sees through necessity is no longer its bondsman, but at home with himself.
Die dialektische bewegung
Contingency drives toward necessity. What at first appears contingent proves, on closer inspection, to be necessary --- it has its ground.
Im buch
Ch. 7.6, 7.7