Necessity Necessity is a metaphysical concept. The definition of necessity is to be required or for an object to be indespensible. Necessity is often contrasted with actualism or contingency. As Leucippus said, “Nothing occurs at random, but everything for a reason and by necessity.” [1] It is impossible for something to be actual without being possible, but can possibility exist without actuality? Saul Kripke tackles the issue of necessity in his “Naming and Necessity”, and tries to clarify what the options are. Firstly he poses the questions of whether something that exists in this world has the possibility that it could have been otherwise? He goes on to say that if the world can’t be any different from how it actually is, then it is a necessary world however if it is possible that it could have been different from how it is, then it is actually a contingent world. Kripke believed that necessary a posteriori truths and contingent a priori truths probably both exist. Contingency, possibility and necessity are all modalities. Kripke’s definitions of each modality are as follows; …show more content…
Something which is known a priori must be necessary because surely it would be impossible to know something a priori if it was contingent? Kripke thought that something that was analytically true was also necessary and known a priori, but he also thought that just because something was necessary it didn’t have to be certain. He was of the opinion that something that might not be certain could be known a priori anyway. Lowe developed Kripke’s views on necessity. His definitions of possibility, contingency and necessity slightly differed from Kripke’s and were as follows; Possibility – possible in some possible