Contingency
Hegel (logic of essence, modality)
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
Die pointe
Contingency is not groundless, but incompletely grounded. Apparent chance motivates the search for necessity. "Everything actual has a ground" means: contingency is to be sublated into comprehension.
Die dialektische bewegung (kap. 7.5)
- Contingency drives toward necessity (we search for the ground) - But necessity at first appears as chance (we do not yet know the grounds) - The truth: "The necessary always asserts itself contingently" --- the structure is necessary, the concrete execution contingent
Beispiel (kap. 7.5)
That someone makes the scientific breakthrough is (under certain conditions) necessary. Who makes it and exactly when is contingent.