In
philosophy and
logic,
contingency is the status of
propositions that are neither true under every possible
valuation (i.e.
tautologies) nor false under every possible valuation (i.e.
contradictions). A contingent proposition is neither
necessarily true nor necessarily false. Propositions that are contingent may be so because they contain
logical connectives which, along with the
truth value of any of its
atomic parts, determine the truth value of the proposition. This is to say that the truth value of the proposition is
contingent upon the truth values of the sentences which comprise it. Contingent propositions depend on the
facts, whereas
analytic propositions are true without regard to any facts about which they speak.