Contingent
Example: Our contingent beliefs depend heavily on cultural and historical contexts.
Definition
"Contingent" in philosophy refers to beliefs or truths that are not necessarily true in all circumstances but depend on certain conditions or events. These are things that could be otherwise, meaning they are neither logically necessary nor impossible.
Etymology
The word "contingent" comes from the Latin 'contingent-', the present participle of 'contingere', meaning 'to touch upon' or 'to happen'. Did you know it originally implied something happening by chance or accident, which fits well with its philosophical sense of depending on particular conditions?
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"Contingent" appears in the Vocaplus list "English - Philosophy - (C2) - set 1", containing 120 commonly used words.
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